(The following is being syndicated from An A-Blog for A-Rod)
A more appropriate title for this post might have been “The 5 Most Important Yankees For 2012 Besides the Obvious Choices.” We can all agree that CC is important because he’s the ace of the staff and if he went down that would be a problem. Same with Cano as the best hitter in the lineup or Mo as the closer. I wanted to think outside that box a little and find the 5 guys on the roster who I think will make the difference between the 2012 edition of the New York Yankees being a good team and a great team; between losing in the ALCS and winning the World Series. I’m sure there will be some disagreement with my choices, but these 5 guys are my most important Yankees for 2012.
1)
The abundance of upper-level catching depth that the Yankees had last season has vanished with the retirement of , the trading away of Jesus Montero, and the continuing back problems of . Russell Martin’s value to the team increased slightly with each of those occurrences, and now with the Yankees scrambling to replace the missing depth through minor moves he becomes even more important. No offense to the , , or Chris Stewarts of the world, but if they are getting regular at-bats as part of an everyday Yankee lineup in place of Martin, that’s not a good thing. Martin is a former Silver Slugger at the plate and a former Gold Glove winner behind it. He’s familiar with everybody on the Yankee staff and looking to make a big splash in a contract year. A healthy, productive Martin makes the lineup deeper and more dangerous, and the drop-off from his production to that of any of the current backup options is significant.
2)
Jeter might be the biggest wild card in the lineup in terms of which way his production can go this season. The way he finished 2011 has created elevated expectations for him this season, and he has looked good again at the plate this spring since coming back from his calf strain. But don’t forget that he was close to below average for the early part of last season, and history is working against him as a 37-year-old shortstop turning 38 in the summer. A repeat of 2011′s second half, or something close to it, would be great from Jeter. It would create more RBI opportunities for the hitters behind him, inspire confidence that Jeter can at least remain serviceable through the end of his contract, and mask his defensive deficiencies to a certain degree. A step back towards his 2010-early 2011 numbers makes that contract look worse and brings back the “Joe should move Jeter out of the leadoff spot” media frenzy that nobody wants to deal with.
3)
He was eyed as a potential replacement for Mo when the Yankees signed him, but Soriano definitely didn’t live up that billing last year. With D-Rob a candidate for regression this season and the Yankees not being able to count on Joba or to pitch high-leverage innings if and when they return from the DL, Soriano becomes the key piece to the bullpen. As a former closer, Soriano gives the Yankees a reliable in-house backup option to both Robertson as the setup man and Mo as the closer. On almost any other team in the American League Soriano would be the closer, and he’s had some very good years in that role. On the Yankees, he’s pitching the 7th inning. A repeat of his past good seasons gives the Yankees a shutdown crew for the 7th-9th innings and that added insurance for D-Rob and Mo. Another bad year could expose the bullpen as being a bit shallow compared to last season, especially if the middle relievers stuggle.
4)
He’s not the all-world player he used to be, but when he’s healthy Alex Rodriguez is still the best third baseman in baseball. Remember that he was hitting .290/.407/.609 at the end of April last season. Those health questions and the spot he occupies in the lineup make him the most important piece out of the Yankees’ group of run producers. You pretty much know what you’re going to get from Cano and Swish in their spots, and even if he doesn’t make any improvements from the left side, Teixeira is still going to drive in runs because of his power. A big season from A-Rod in the clean up spot makes the middle of the Yankee lineup very, very dangerous again. Another down, injury-filled year creates a gap in a big run-producing spot and shortens the lineup through whatever players are used to replace him, not to mention the drop off in defensive value at third base. 16 HR and 62 RBI isn’t going to cut it again. For the sake of comparison, Martin had 18 and 65 last year. If A-Rod is healthy and mashing, the Yankee lineup can be the best in the AL. It’s that simple.
5)
We won’t see him around for a still yet-to-be-determined amount of time, but Pineda’s value to the rotation follows a similar logic to A-Rod and the lineup. CC is the ace and barring injury there’s no reason to expect him to not perform to his usual levels. Kuroda can be counted on as a solid #2, and Hughes and Nova, even at their peaks, are probably #3 starters at best. Pineda is already a legit #2 starter, with the ceiling of a #1 if he continues to improve his secondary stuff. Conditioning problems and down velocity aside, he has top-shelf stuff already and was making great strides with his changeup. Assuming he is able to work his way back into form later this season, having that kind of arm on standby is an option that few other teams have. And being able to roll Pineda out behind CC and Kuroda in a postseason series gives the Yankees a rotation that’s just as deep and potentially dominant as their lineup. CC, Kuroda, Hughes, Nova is good. CC, Kuroda, Pineda, Hughes, Nova could be great.
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You forgot to add Andy to the rotation. If he is at least a number 3 starter Penida can be a 4/5 this year but will need to be a high 3 / 2 by next year or 189 is in serious trouble.
That’s a fair point, Dave. Part of me still worries that Andy’s body won’t hold up all the way into the postseason, so that’s why he was left off.
And I agree that he would be the #3 starter, but for a postseason rotation I would slot him after Pineda. If it came down to a must-win Game 4 in a short series, I always want Andy on the hill.
I think you just have view Pettitte as a lottery ticket at this point. He’s not a key guy they are counting on but a luxury that was too good to turn down at $2.5 million. I think you could name Hughes, Pineda or Nova as important. Each has their back story. I might say Hughes is most important of the three since he probably wouldn’t get an another op to start if he fails this year. I don’t want to hear the trade criticism if Pineda struggles a bit though so I’m fine with Pineda over Hughes. I’d probably switch out Jeter for Texeira. It’s important that Texeira rebounds and doesn’t further decline.
With all due respect, the five most important Yankees (not necessarily in order) are:
1. CC Sabathia
2. Alex Rodriguez
3. Robinson Cano
4. Mariano Rivera
5. Mark Teixeira
(I wouldn’t argue if you wanted to substitute Curtis Granderson for Mo but I felt that one reliever needed to be in the list).
If your best players don’t perform up to par it doesn’t really matter what the lesser players do.
Brad already said that CC, Cano and Mo were most important, but those guys (knock on wood) have been very healthy and dependable. I think this list is more about the players who we don’t know as much what to expect from but who are also important.
Exactly. I’d be a fool if I honestly believed Russell Martin was more important than CC or Cano and I would fully expect everybody here to let me know that.
Anticipating that CC, Cano, Mo, and Teix are going to produce at a level comparable to what they did last season, if not better, I didn’t want a waste a post reminding us of what we already know.
The title of your post is:
With the exception of A-Rod, I completely disagree with your premise that the performance of the guys you mentioned will be the difference in the Yankees’ season and/or post-season irrespective of whether you said that CC, Cano, etc are really more important.
Losing Martin would hurt but it’s survivable and of the guys on your list that haven’t dated Madonna he’s probably the one that will have the most impact.
I love Derek Jeter but he’s not the player he was and it’s unreasonable to expect too much from him. Jeter is what he is at this point – not a bad player but not a great player anymore so it’s hard to see his performance making or breaking the team.
Soriano? Sorry, but the 7th inning guy just isn’t that important. If you need big help from a 7th inning guy then you’ve got problems that are too big for him to fix. Besides, I suspect that Soriano is more replaceable than most fans suspect. I wouldn’t be shocked if Phelps or Mitchell could fill in for him quite ably if he was hurt.
I liked the Montero for Pineda trade at the time and still do. But Pineda will probably be handled with kid gloves after his injury and may be relegated to a back-end role or even an extended stay in the minors. Yes, if he comes back and pitches like a #2 or even a strong #3 he would have a big impact. But even before the injury it wasn’t clear that he was going to be handed a big enough role to be a major difference maker.
I will grant you that if all four of those guys are exceptionally good or exceptionally bad there will be a major impact. But that’s an unlikely scenario and teams have won division titles, pennants and even WS with guys at the same positions who were worse than any of these guys will probably be on an individual basis.
I like this definition of “important” as kind of meaning how much difference it will make to the team if the player has a good or bad year. I’m not sure Soriano belongs on this list. He’s just a seventh inning guy. In order for Soriano’s bad year to matter a lot, either Mo or Dave Robertson would also need to have a bad year.
Maybe Ibanez could replace Soriano.
Yeah but if Soriano has a year similar to any year in the league, in which he’s been healthy all the way through, we should have the very best bullpen in baseball. Just imagine what could be if he has a year similar to his year in Tampa, we wouldn’t need a starter to go past 6 all year.
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