Yankees – Page 209 – Keefe To The City

Apr 8, 2010

A Yankee Fan at Fenway, Part II

In 2003, Pedro Martinez allowed just two extra-base hits off 0-and-2 counts prior to Game 7 of the ALCS. But when Hideki Matsui doubled off Martinez on 0-and-2 in the famous eighth-inning comeback, he became

In 2003, Pedro Martinez allowed just two extra-base hits off 0-and-2 counts prior to Game 7 of the ALCS. But when Hideki Matsui doubled off Martinez on 0-and-2 in the famous eighth-inning comeback, he became the second hitter in three at-bats to hit an extra-base hit off Martinez with Derek Jeter having doubled on 0-and-2 pitch to lead off the inning.

I had never seen, in person, the Yankees win consecutive games in the same series at Fenway Park. One win was hard enough to come by, but the second win in a row had been my 0-and-2 against Pedro. That is no longer the case as the Yankees took down the second and third games of the opening series to ride a two-game winning streak into Tampa Bay this weekend. Let’s just hope they can continue their winning ways without me on hand.

Aside from the “Yankees suck” chants and the “You did steroids” chant directed at A-Rod which is ironic coming from a fan base whose team has David Ortiz, Adrian Beltre and Mike Cameron on the roster, it was a rather smooth two nights at Fenway Park. I probably could have done without a soggy Fenway Frank bun that looked like it was dipped in water and prepared for Joey Chestnut or Kobayashi, but you can’t have it all, and I will gladly take the two Yankees wins over a dry hotdog bun.

Judging by the atmosphere at Fenway, the rivalry hasn’t lost a step in Boston and with the Yankees fresh off the 2009 championship, the rivalry has gained steamed as Bostonians returned to second-rate citizens in the AL East. While the rivalry continues to have a strong foundation and key players that help fuel the hatred between Yankees fans and Red Sox fans, one player is being left behind as the battle for AL East supremacy carries on.

In left center at Fenway Park, there is a scoreboard screen that lists the lineup of the team batting and an asterisk denotes the hitter currently at the plate. During Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, I remember looking at the screen in extra innings and trying to figure out how long the Yankees had until the asterisk made its way back to the heart of the order to Ramirez and Ortiz. And when the duo was due up in the bottom of an inning, I kept thinking to myself, “The Yankees have to score now.” Sure enough, it was Ortiz who had the game-winning hit off Esteban Loaiza in the 14th inning.

I now find myself hoping the asterisk finds Ortiz as quickly as possible because with Jason Varitek on the bench, Ortiz has become the easiest out in the Red Sox lineup.

There was a time when David Ortiz was the symbol of fear for Yankees fans. Extra-base hits were expected from him and when he was held to only a single, you felt like you just passed a cop going 80 mph but didn’t get pulled over. Ortiz wasn’t fazed by anything in the box (mainly because the Yankees never tried to move him off the plate) and he just waited for Yankees pitchers to miss their location by a centimeter before making them pay.

From 2003-July 31, 2008, David Ortiz was a rock star in Boston, and probably could have defeated Ted Kennedy for a seat in the Senate if he wanted to. He received the loudest ovations when he was introduced as the hitter, his jersey was the most popular among Red Sox fans and kids across New England began spitting on their batting gloves in between pitches to mimic the slugger Theo Epstein revived off the Twins’scrap heap. But since Manny Ramirez left Boston, the cheers for “the designated hitter, number 34, David Ortiz” have become almost derisive, Dustin Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis have taken over the jersey sales, and I’d imagine little league coaches are strongly advising against Ortiz’s routine and habits at this point.

Since August 1, 2008 (when Ortiz began playing without Manny), Ortiz has hit .261 with 37 home runs and 142 RBIs in 202 games. It has taken him basically a season and a third to produce the same power numbers he did annually from 2004-2007, and those years he hit .301, .300, .287 and .332. He wasn’t hitting .261, which is 20 points below his .281 career average.

On Tuesday night after David Ortiz went hitless again, he wasn’t the happy and smiling face from his days as one of the league’s best sluggers when he flipped out on reporters.

“You guys wait ’til [expletive] happens, then you can talk [expletive]. Two [expletive] games, and already you [expletives] are going crazy.

“What’s up with that, man? [Expletive]. [Expletive] 160 games left. That’s a [expletive]. One of you [expletives] got to go ahead and hit for me.”

As my Red Sox friend Hurley pointed out, everyone always assumed that Ortiz played babysitter to Manny in Boston, but maybe it was the other way around?

I have long waited for the day David Ortiz was no longer able to hit a baseball consistently or with authority, but now that the day has come, it’s actually pretty sad. Don’t get me wrong, the only thing I hate about Fenway Park more than “Sweet Caroline,” which is also the only time I wish my name wasn’t Neil, are the “Papi” chants that pollute the air when David Ortiz steps in with runners in scoring position. But David Ortiz has been the heart of the Red Sox order for so long and is one of the few remaining players on the Red Sox from the heated battles of 2003 and 2004 that it’s almost like a piece of the rivalry dies as his power does too.

Ortiz drove in the only run for the Red Sox on Wednesday, but it was his only hit of the series in 11 at-bats. When the “Papi” chants began in the bottom of the eighth inning on Wednesday in a 1-1 game with Ortiz stepping in to face Chan Ho Park, for a second it felt like three years ago as the Fenway crowd tried to push the calendar back to 2007 hoping for some late-game heroics from Ortiz. But Ortiz’s alter ego “Big Papi” no longer exists, as Chan Ho Park needed just three pitches to strike out plain old David Ortiz and end the inning.

At some point in the very near future (I have the over/under set for May 1), David Ortiz won’t be the full-time DH for the Red Sox. At some point Theo Epstein and Terry Francona are going to have to let Mike Lowell play.

Maybe Mike Lowell hit on Terry Francona’s wife at the Christmas party or ran over Theo Epstein’s dog for them to treat him so poorly, but eventually they are going to have to realize that they are wasting $12 million on the bench while David Ortiz wastes at-bats. I love the mistreatment of Lowell that goes on with the Red Sox because it means less doubles off the Green Monster for the Red Sox and more strikeouts for the Yankees. But you’d have to think eventually enough will be enough.

This is the last year of Ortiz’s contract with the Red Sox with the team holding a $12.5 million option for 2011 that is unlikely to get picked up. As new faces Curtis Granderson, Randy Winn, Adrian Beltre, Mike Cameron, Marco Scutaro and John Lackey enter the rivalry to begin another chapter in Yankees-Red Sox history, the chapter on David Ortiz looks to be coming to an end. And even though he will take a piece of the rivalry with him, it’s safe to say he won’t be missed.

Blogs • KTTC Archive • Yankees

Apr 7, 2010

A Yankee Fan at Fenway

This column was originally posted on April 7, 2010. When I got off the Amtrak regional train at Back Bay station in Boston, the first person to make eye contact with me was a man

This column was originally posted on April 7, 2010.

When I got off the Amtrak regional train at Back Bay station in Boston, the first person to make eye contact with me was a man wearing a Dustin Pedroia shirt, and he obviously noticed my Yankees hat. He mouthed something to me, but with Eddie Vedder hammering out the chorus to “Corduroy” on my iPod headphones I couldn’t hear what he said, though judging by his enthusiasm and facial expression, it wasn’t something the FCC would approve of. But I didn’t care what he said. I was actually happy he was so agitated by me wearing a Yankees hat because it was a sign that baseball is back.

You can wear Yankees apparel 365 days a year in Boston and for 356 of those days, people will either look at you like you are walking down the street naked, or the real rebels will crack a joke or give you the old “Yankees suck.” But for those nine days of the year when the Yankees are in Boston, wearing a Yankees hat in Boston is like eating at Boston’s South Street Diner sober. You just don’t do it.

After Joe Girardi ruined Easter by holding bullpen tryouts on Opening Night rather than spring training, I couldn’t wait to get to Fenway Park. Even with the Yankees well below .500 in games I attend at Fenway, I was eager for my first game of the season.

Seeing the Yankees win in person at Fenway Park isn’t something I have been fortunate to see a lot. The majority of Yankees games I attend at Fenway end catastrophically and I’m pretty sure I have been to every game at Fenway that NESN uses for Red Sox Classics telecasts. Even with the Yankees having a remarkable record in home games I attend (including a perfect regular season and postseason record in 2009), Fenway Park has been to me what lefties have been to Curtis Granderson. I don’t know how many times I have seen the Yankees play at Fenway, but to give you an idea of what I have endured, here are some of the games I have attended:

May 18, 1999 – Joe Torre returns to the Yankees after missing the beginning of the season to battle prostate cancer. David Cone and Pedro Martinez go toe-to-toe, but trailing 3-2 late, Jason Grimsley can’t keep it close as he gives up three runs in the bottom of the eighth.

Oct 18, 2004 – Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, which also happens to be the third-worst night of my life. The second being Game 6 and the first being Game 7.

April 14, 2005 – Randy Johnson gets lit up for five runs and Tom Gordon turns a 5-5 tie into an 8-5 loss with an embarrassing eighth inning. And to top it all off, Gary Sheffield brawls with some fans in right field.

May 1, 2006 – Johnny Damon returns to Boston as Friendly Fenway’s center field gets littered with money. Tied 3-3 in the eighth, Tanyon Sturtze gives up the go-ahead run. With two men on and David Ortiz due up, Joe Torre calls for the Mike Myers, the lefty specialist and the man the Yankees acquired for the sole purpose of facing Ortiz. Ortiz cranks a three-run home run into the New England night.

April 22, 2007 – After losing the first two games of the series, the Yankees take a 3-0 lead in the rubber match on Sunday Night Baseball. But after holding the Red Sox scoreless for the first two innings, rookie Chase Wright allows Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Mike Lowell and Jason Varitek to go back-to-back-to-back-to-back on him to take a 4-3 lead. The Yankees would take the lead back in the sixth only to have Scott Proctor give up a three-run home run to Lowell in the seventh.

April 24, 2009 – The Yankees lead 4-2 in the ninth with two outs and Mariano Rivera on the mound and Kevin Youkilis on first base. Jason Bay hits a 1-0 pitch over the wall in center to tie the game. In the 11th, Damaso Marte gives up a home run to Youkilis that landed just yesterday.

April 26, 2009 – Hoping to salvage the final game of the series, Andy Pettitte falls apart in the fifth. Tied 1-1, Pettitte wakes David Ortiz up by allowing Ortiz to double home the go-ahead run. With Jacoby Ellsbury on third and Ortiz on second following the double, Ellsbury steals home on Pettitte and Jorge Posada and steals Pettitte’s pride, dignity and self esteem in the process.

So when Marco Scutaro doubled off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning on Tuesday, it only made sense that I texted Hurley, my Red Sox friend, “Any more hits or base runners and I’m out of here.” But Mariano escaped the double unscathed and the Yankees got into the win column for the first time in 2010. It was a good night at Fenway and the win extended my personal Fenway winning streak to two (a career high).

It only took the Yankees until their second try to defeat the Red Sox this season and there is always sense of relief knowing that the Yankees are going to leave an early season series at Fenway with at least one win. Here are three things that I took away from Tuesday, and the Yankees’ first W of the season:

1. Watching A.J. Burnett pitch is harder to watch than the scene in Casino where Nicky Santoro (Joe Pesci) and his brother Dominick are beaten within an inch of their lives by baseball bats and then buried alive. Sure it’s only one start, but it’s not like we didn’t also see this last year. Burnett is either going to come within reach of a no-no or have a start that includes that one letdown inning. On Tuesday, he had the latter and the letdown inning was the fifth. It is good to see that he isn’t complaining about Jorge Posada catching him and the two seem to be working out whatever problems they had a year ago.

2. On Sunday we saw Starter Joba disguised as a reliever. On Tuesday we saw Reliever Joba, and it felt good to have him back. Joba stranded the potential tying run at second base in the eighth inning, and did it with his fastball, slider and the attitude that disappeared following his first start in 2008. Just 48 hours after Chan Ho Park had the worst Opening Day debut in Yankees history, Joba fixed the bridge to Mariano by taking care of business and ending his night with a fist pump that probably made Goose Gossage cringe. But as long as 2007 Joba is on the mound, I don’t care if he fist pumps or Riverdances as long as he puts up zeroes.

3. I was waiting for the few notes of “Billie Jean” to come across the Fenway PA system when Robinson Cano hit his solo home run on Tuesday, as he swung, made contact and dropped his bat like it was on fire all in one smooth, flawless motion before gliding out of the box. Cano has looked really comfortable batting in the fifth spot and even though his home run was a solo shot, his approach with runners on also looks to have improved. Cano’s approach in RBI situations used to be to swing at the first pitch no matter where it was, but it looks like he is growing out of his bad habits and undisciplined hitting. I feel more confident with him up in big spots and believe that he will be able to hold on to his spot in the order over the course of the season.

Despite Burnett’s inability to consistently throw strikes and Damaso Marte’s pickoff move, it was an overall solid night from the Yankees. But knowing that Chan Ho Park is currently the difference between having already won the three-game series and needing to win the rubber game on Wednesday to win the series is upsetting. Winning April and May series at Fenway for the Yankees is unheard of, but on Wednesday they have a chance to do just that.

As I left Fenway Park on Tuesday and walked down Yawkey Way across Van Ness Street and over to Boylston Street, a man playing “Take Me Out To The Ball Game” on the flute stopped playing midsong to greet me with a profanity-filled tirade.

Baseball is back.

Blogs • Yankees

Mar 31, 2010

Opening Day Butterflies

The Yankees will no longer be world champions on Sunday night They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com on March 31, 2010.

Something about this spring training coming to an end just doesn’t feel right. This spring has that feeling you get when you leave your house and feel like you forgot something, but you convince yourself you didn’t, and then when you are too far away from your house to go back, you remember what you forgot. I have figured out what has been missing from this spring training, and it’s the distress of the last eight springs.

From 2001-2008, no matter what situation the Yankees faced, I believed they would prevail in the end. But that was me being spoiled and stupid as a Yankees fan, trying to hold onto the magic from 1996-2000. Up until Luis Gonzalez fought off a cutter into shallow right field, I honestly thought the Yankees would never lose again. Winning had become routine and losing wasn’t even considered an option anymore. It’s hard for anyone who is not a Yankees fan to understand this, and trying to explain the concept to non-Yankees fans is like Ron Washington trying to explain to the Rangers front office why he failed a drug test. However, it wasn’t until they hit rock bottom in 2004 that I was able to admit that I was unsure of the next time the Yankees would be world champions.

In 2004, I didn’t even care that the Red Sox won Game 4 because I knew the series would end in Game 5. But when I left Fenway devastated after having wasted nearly all my spending money for the semester on a ticket to Game 5 with my friend Jim, thinking we were going to see the Yankees clinch the pennant in Boston, I still believed the Yankees would finish the Red Sox off in Game 6. And if not, they would certainly get the job done in Game 7.

The Yankees failed in every imaginable way from 2001-2008, and with each year removed from 2000, the offseasons lasted longer and the anxiety for another title grew larger. The Yankees slowly evolved into what the Patriots have become in the NFL, and it wasn’t until November that they were able to rid themselves of their fading image.

Every spring for the last eight springs, I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out where the holes on the team were and how Brian Cashman could fill them in order to bring the team back to glory. But this season, there are virtually no holes. The No. 4 starter had a 2.87 ERA in the National League in 2009, and the No. 7 hitter hit 30 home runs a year ago. The only thing to complain about right now is why the Yankees are opening and closing the season in Fenway Park. Aside from that, the team has an answer for everything, or at least it appears that way.

There might not be much to worry about with this team, but there is always something to worry about with every team. Any fan who is completely content with their team is lying to you and lying to themselves. To me, there are two crucial components to the success of the 2010 Yankees. While I’m not all that worried about them, there is still a cause for concern since the margin for error in the AL East is zero, and the difference between these two things working out and not working out is the difference between championship No. 28 and a third-place finish.

1. The production from 2, 20 and 42
The same way I don’t want to believe that Eric Taylor of Friday Night Lights isn’t really a high school football coach at East Dillon, I don’t want to believe that Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera will one day be bad at baseball.

Jeter is going to be 36 in June, Jorge will be 39 in August and Mariano turned 40 in November. At some point these three won’t be the same players they are going to be remembered as being. Let’s hope that never happens, but more importantly, let’s hope it doesn’t happen this year.

The Yankees are in a position in which the success of these three will likely dictate the success of the team. Since 1996, the team has made the playoffs in 13 of a possible 14 seasons. The only season they didn’t was the year when Posada appeared in only 51 games. When they are healthy the Yankees win, and it’s as simple as that.

Eventually Father Time is going to catch up with the trio, but their demise has been falsely predicted each season for the last few seasons. This year, many analysts and “experts” are jumping on the bandwagons of the Red Sox and Rays, banking on old age finally catching up with the old guard. But the “experts” have been wrong before and will likely be wrong again.

I don’t think we are at the end of the road with these three, but eventually we will be and no one knows for sure when that will be. Not only does that deeply sadden me, but it also scares me since a decline in production from Jeter, Posada and Rivera will mean the end of an era and a year without postseason baseball.

2. The bridge to Mariano
The first time I saw Joba Chamberlain fail in person was May 6, 2008. Aside from the midges in Cleveland, it was the first time Joba had every failed in the majors. Joba allowed a go-ahead three-run home run to David Dellucci at the Stadium, and then leaned over on the mound in disbelief, appearing as though he was going to throw up on his spikes after what happened. The entire stadium felt the same way. Joba had been untouchable in his career up to that point, and seeing him blow a lead was like seeing Brian Bruney hold a lead.

In 2007, the only run he allowed in the regular season was a solo home run to Mike Lowell. When Ron Guidry went to the mound to check on him following the homer, Joba reversed roles with the pitching coach. Joba patted the Gator on the back and sent him back to the dugout, assuring him that he was fine and that it wouldn’t happen again. That was the personality of Joba Chamberlain before he became a starter and before the Joba Rules were created.

Joba wants to be a starting pitcher, and he has made that very clear. Why wouldn’t he want to? That is where the glory and glamour is, and the big money as well. But will knowing that he lost his starting spot after the team tinkered with his career and arm for a year and a half cause him to be a different reliever than we know him to be? Will he still possess the personality that meant a 1-2-3 inning and an emotional outburst?

When Joba returned to the bullpen during the postseason, the aura from 2007 and the beginning of 2008 was back, and so was his fastball. It was like watching the guy get the girl at the end of a movie. Everything was the way it was supposed to be, and the result was a happy ending in the form of a championship.

The world now knows two Jobas: Reliever Joba and Starter Joba. Joba might be a reliever now, but that doesn’t necessarily make him Reliever Joba. No one knows what to expect from him as he returns to his original role with the team.

This offseason seemed to go by a lot faster than years past, which is partially due to the Yankees playing until Nov. 4 and partially due to not longing for another championship. Eight springs as the hunter and not as the hunted have made me value championships more than I did the last time the Yankees won, when I took the Subway Series win for granted.

Fans of the other 29 teams will credit the 2009 World Series to the Yankees spending $429 million last offseason, but that was just part of the process. The thousands of breaks, the vast amount of luck and the tens of injuries the team dodged made up for more than half of the pieces to the 2009 World Series puzzle.

If CC Sabathia had actually been hurt when he left in the second inning of a game against the Marlins on June 21, the new Yankee Stadium would have opened the same way the old one closed. If Phil Cuzzi doesn’t call Joe Mauer’s ground-rule double foul in Game 2 of the ALDS, and if Mike Scioscia intentionally walks A-Rod in the bottom of the ninth in Game 2 of the ALCS, maybe the Canyon of Heroes goes unused for another fall.

I have tried to cherish the 2009 season as much and as long as possible because after Josh Beckett delivers his first pitch to Derek Jeter on Sunday night, the Yankees will no longer be world champions. They will be defending world champions. And the only thing harder than winning a championship is winning back-to-back championships.

Blogs • Yankees

Feb 17, 2010

Some Questions Still Unanswered

Five questions surrounding the Yankees as spring training begins.

This column was originally published on WFAN.com Feb. 17, 2010.

The first day of pitchers and catchers is the first official day of the season. It’s a day that represents the closing days of winter and the excitement for spring and summer. It grants new life to the 29 teams that didn’t finish the previous season with a win, and gives hope to clubs looking to be this season’s dark horse. Today is that day.

Coming off a world championship, Tampa should be relaxed for the first time in a decade. New York’s real baseball problems are in Port St. Lucie at Mets camp where Omar Minaya is trying to build a rotation on the fly and trying to figure out exactly who is going catch that rotation. No one in Queens is satisfied with the situation at first base or in right field, and the team’s center fielder isn’t going to be ready for Opening Day. It’s a good time to be a Yankees fan.

But even with the Yankees boasting a team as good if not better than their 103-win club of a year ago, there are still a handful of minor housekeeping matters to be taken care of over the next six weeks. Here’s five questions surrounding the Bombers at the beginning of spring:

1. Can the veterans stay healthy?
The difference between the 2008 and 2009 Yankees was 14 regular season wins and another 11 wins in October. A serious rash of injuries created this difference. Aside from Alex Rodriguez missing the first month of the season, the Yankees were remarkably healthy in 2009. In 2008, they weren’t as lucky.

The injury bug wreaked havoc on the ‘08 Yankees, landing the following players on the disabled list at least once: Jonathan Albaladejo, Wilson Betemit, Chris Britton, Brian Bruney, Joba Chamberlain, Johnny Damon, Dan Giese, Phil Hughes, Jeff Karstens, Ian Kennedy, Hideki Matsui, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Alex Rodriguez and Chien-Ming Wang. Starters landed on the DL, as did their replacements, and their replacements’ replacements. It was a disaster from Opening Day through Game 162 in what was the worst season in the Bronx since 1993.

This season, the Yankees are somewhat younger than they were a year ago after trimming Johnny Damon (36) and Hideki Matsui (35) from the roster. However, there is still cause for concern as the team’s superstars get up there in age.

Here are the current ages for the starting lineup: 26, 27, 28, 29, 29, 31, 34, 35 and 38.

Here are the current ages for the starting rotation and closer (Hughes and Chamberlain included): 23, 24, 29, 33, 33, 37 and 40.

There are a lot of 30s listed there, and they are all very significant players on the roster. The Yankees are going to need good fortune and a bill of health similar to 2009 to make another October run, and they are going to need to leave camp healthy.

2. Who’s going to play center field?
When the Yankees traded for Curtis Granderson, I thought they finally had a long-term solution in center field. I was also thinking that Johnny Damon was going to be back in left, but that is clearly not the case. As of now, it looks like Granderson will be in left and Brett Gardner in center, and maybe that is for the better.

The Yankees lost 24 home runs and 82 RBIs from Damon, and 28 home runs and 90 RBIs from Hideki Matsui. Granderson is going to be asked to make up for the offensive production lost with Damon. Nick Johnson will be an upgrade in the on-base department over Matsui, but he isn’t going to be able to provide the power that Godzilla gave the Yankees at DH – unless he becomes a product of the short porch.

With Granderson in left, there will be less wear and tear on his body than there would be in center, allowing him to be stronger offensively. No one is counting on Gardner’s bat anyways and any offense he can provide the team is a plus, but not needed.

If the Yankees feel that Granderson’s game has diminished in center like it appeared to be during the final weeks of last season, then Gardner is the right man for the job. It’s safe to say whatever decision is made at the end of spring training will be changed more than once throughout the year.

3. Who’s going to be the long reliever?
Joe Girardi didn’t think it was necessary to have a long reliever on the Opening Day roster last season. It didn’t take him long to change his mind.

Early on, the bullpen was overtaxed and it didn’t help that the team was asking Edwar Ramirez, Phil Coke, Jose Veras and Brian Bruney to get important outs. Chien-Ming Wang pretty much caused the bullpen fatigue for the first couple of weeks of the season, and the relievers didn’t recover until the Yankees finally made wholesale changes. The same thing can’t happen this season.

Chad Gaudin and Sergio Mitre will be the long reliever candidates since no matter what the Yankees say, the competition for the fifth spot in the rotation doesn’t include them.

When it comes down to it, Gaudin is the better option. He is more reliable (3.43 ERA in 42 innings with the Yankees) and has had previous success in the majors. Gaudin’s high pitch counts forced Girardi to have a short leash with him in most of his starts, but the ability to help the team is certainly there. I don’t know if you can say the same for Mitre.

Mitre might only be a little over a year removed from Tommy John surgery, but it’s not like he was some stud before his injury. Mitre allowed 71 hits in 51 1/3 innings with the Yankees last season, and posted a 1.63 WHIP, which was only worse than the pitcher formerly known as Chien-Ming Wang’s 2.02 and the always-exciting Edwar Ramirez’s 1.96. I would like to think that the best team in baseball would have someone more reliable than Mitre in the bullpen and serving as the long reliever. Give it to Gaudin.

4. Which A.J. Burnett will show up?
The difference between winning 95 games this season and 105 games depends on which A.J. Burnett comes to pitch.

There’s no doubt that Burnett has No. 1 stuff, but many times, he pitches like a No. 5. His potential no-hitters can quickly turn into four-run deficits, and when his game begins to south, there is no way to right the ship until five days later.

Burnett proved himself in the postseason after finishing the regular season with just 13 wins in 33 starts. His performance in Game 2 of the World Series made up for all the eggs he laid throughout the summer, but it wasn’t enough to fully gain his trust.

When Burnett takes the mound, you hope that you get the guy who allowed one hit to the Red Sox over 7 2/3 innings in August and not the guy who allowed a grand slam to Jason Varitek in April. The season won’t be won or lost because of Burnett, but he has the ability to make the Yankees untouchable in the division and the league.

5. How will the Yankees handle Derek Jeter’s contract situation?
A lot of newspapers will need to fill space between now and the end of the season, and they will argue about the contract status of Derek Jeter to do so.

When Jeter, Casey Close, Brian Cashman and Hal Steinbrenner sit down to hammer out a new deal for the face of the franchise and the face of the game, they are going to give Jeter what he deserves: whatever he wants.

Jeter isn’t going to be given a low-ball offer filled with incentives like Joe Torre was, and he isn’t going to be left hanging in the balance like Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada were. Jeter is going to be given a multiyear deal for a lucrative amount of money, and there is no other way it will happen and there is no other way it should.

Speculation can be justified when it comes to the contract statuses of Mariano and Girardi, or with Posada at the end of next season, and that’s because they are not Derek Jeter. There is only one Derek Jeter, and because of that, he ‘s going to get treated and taken care of in a way that no other player will or should. End of story.

Blogs • Yankees

Feb 11, 2010

Plenty of Relief In Sight

No bullpen is perfect and no bullpen is unbeatable, but for the first time in a while, the Yankees might have one close to those things.

Every season I like to believe the Yankees bullpen is going to be better than it was the season before. For the first time since Mike Stanton and Jeff Nelson were building the bridge to ninth inning, it looks like the bullpen in the Bronx will be the best it’s been in quite some time.

I won’t have to convince myself this spring that the Yankees can catch lightning in a bottle four times in one season with four different relievers. There’s no more Brian Bruney. No more Phil Coke. No more watching late leads disappear into the right field bleachers. No more needing to worry about how the day’s bridge to Mariano will be constructed, or if it will be sturdy enough to reach the ninth inning.

The acquisitions of Curtis Granderson and Javier Vazquez this offseason will overshadow Brian Cashman’s decision to ship away Bruney and Coke, but I think these moves deserve just as much recognition. Cashman was able to take away two of Joe Girardi’s most used relievers, two pitchers who inspired zero confidence among fans, and whose only roles in the major leagues should be serving as mop-up men. Bruney and Coke combined for 116 appearances last season, and not once in any of those 116 pitching changes was there a feeling that the opposition wouldn’t add to their run total.

The obvious problem with the Yankees during the beginning of last season was behind the outfield wall in their bullpen. The absence of A-Rod from the lineup and Mark Teixeira’s early offseason woes didn’t help matters, but the real dilemmas began when Girardi went to the mound to pull his starter. The Yankees were a $200 million team with a $200 bullpen. On Opening Day, the bullpen consisted of Rivera, Bruney, Coke, Damaso Marte, Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras. Outside of Rivera, there wasn’t one pitcher capable of getting important outs on a consistent basis. (Marte only remembered how to pitch in the postseason, and thankfully he did then).

All of the books and DVD specials about the 2009 championship season will focus on a number of elements: the return of A-Rod; Mark Teixeira turning it around offensively; the walk-off wins against the Twins; and Joe Girardi’s Billy Martin impression in Atlanta. All were notable turning points in the quest for No. 27, however, three dates that won’t be recognized when it comes to the club’s remarkable turnaround are May 18, June 8 and June 13.

May 18 was Edwar Ramirez’s final game with the team before being sent down until September call-ups. June 8 was Phil Hughes first appearance out of the bullpen – the most significant decision the team made all season. June 13 was Jose Veras’ last game as a Yankee before being traded to the Cleveland for three pouches of Red Man and two daily passes to the Rock and Hall of Fame.

The destruction and rebuilding of the bullpen midseason was more necessary than any walk-off home run or come-from-behind win. The reconstruction of the bullpen allowed for the late-inning heroics to take place, and turned the Yankees from postseason hopefuls into postseason favorites.

The decision to make Hughes the setup man and the emergence of David Robertson changed the late innings for the Yankees, by shortening games and allowing starters to know their winning decision wouldn’t vanish at the hands of Bruney, Coke, Ramirez or Veras.

This season, the Yankees enter spring training with Rivera, Robertson, Marte and Alfredo Aceves as sure things in the bullpen. Chad Gaudin will likely join them as the long reliever as will someone from the Mark Melancon-Jonathan Albaladejo-Boone Logan group. That leaves one spot for either Joba Chamberlain or Phil Hughes.

Even when the Yankees have finally decided on a set role for Joba, the debate as to whether he belongs in the rotation or bullpen will never end. The discussion is not going away anytime soon and will likely control the baseball talk once the Yankees make their decision on him for 2010.

I have been an advocate of Joba being a starter since the transition was made in 2008. More importantly, I am an advocate of the Yankees winning games and right now, putting him in the bullpen gives the Yankees the best chance to win.

It would have been satisfying to see Joba mature as a front-end starter and be a staple of the rotation for years to come, but it doesn’t look like he is going to get that chance. In this market on this team, there isn’t time for Joba to gain experience as a starter by failing at first. There just isn’t room in the rotation for a 4 1/3 inning pitcher, especially when that pitcher has had immediate and exceptional success as a reliever.

After Joba’s postseason dominance – aside from one fastball to Pedro Feliz – and the return of his high-90s velocity, it doesn’t seem possible that he will begin 2010 in the rotation, and it doesn’t appear likely that he will ever return there.

There will be enough words written in the city between now and Opening Day about Joba’s role on the team, but common sense has him beginning the year as a reliever. With Joba in the bullpen, Phil Hughes will slide into the No. 5 spot in the rotation, in what is currently the best rotation in baseball. Sorry, Boston.

Someone will take the fall as the mop-up man this season, but at least there won’t be several people deserving of that role. On paper, this bullpen has the potential to be the best in baseball, and the best in the Bronx since the last time Yankees went back-to-back and belly-to-belly in October.

No bullpen is perfect and no bullpen is unbeatable. There is usually a Kyle Farnsworth or a Scott Proctor on every club. There will always be a game where a three-run lead turns into a two-run deficit, but as currently constructed it’s hard to pick out who will be this season’s LaTroy Hawkins. For the first time in a while, there might not be one.