Eduardo Nunez – Page 2 – Keefe To The City

Mar 28, 2014

Podcast: Erik Boland

Erik Boland of Newsday joins me to talk about whether the new and slim CC Sabathia can be trusted and how excited everyone should be for Michael Pineda to finally be healthy.

We are almost there. Baseball is almost back. The Yankees are almost back. After a disappointing 2013 season, a miserable October when it comes to baseball, a cold winter and now cold spring, Opening Day is long overdue. The Yankees certainly have their questions and concerns and unknowns this season, but after last year’s Murphy’s Law season, it can only go up from an 85-77 finish and a postseason-less fall.

Erik Boland, the Yankees beat writer for Newsday, joined me to talk about the feeling around the Yankees with Derek Jeter’s last Opening Day approaching, whether the new and slim CC Sabathia can be trusted and how excited everyone should be for Michael Pineda to finally be healthy.

Blogs • Yankees

Feb 20, 2014

Brian Cashman Crushed My Confidence

Brian Cashman gave his Spring Training State of the Yankees to Mike Francesa and it wasn’t as optimistic as I had planned for.

The last time I listened to what Brian Cashman had to say was almost five months ago. It was Oct. 2 when I analyzed Cashman’s end-of-the-year press conference and it had been three days since the end of the season. There was still 180 days until Opening Day and the 2014 season and a chance for the Yankees to make right on everything that went wrong in 2013. Now there are just 40 days until Yankees-Astros on April 1 in Houston and once again it means something when Brian Cashman talks.

On Wednesday, Cashman talked with Mike Francesa on WFAN about spring training and the outlook for the season. After personally spending the last four-plus months talking myself into a turnaround year for the Yankees, thanks to free agency and hopefully avoiding the injury bug, Cashman did his best to destroy my dreams with his answers.

On Derek Jeter’s announcement.

“Besides catching us all off guard, it wasn’t something any of us expected.”

Join the club, Cashman. I’m the founder, CEO and president of it.

On if it bothered him he didn’t know in advance.

“My first reaction was I didn’t think it was accurate. I thought it was maybe somebody hacked his Facebook account because it’s just not something you ever expect Derek in advance to announce going forward that this is it.”

I first learned of Jeter’s retirement on Twitter and I also thought it was a joke and couldn’t believe it was real, mainly because it isn’t. Derek Jeter isn’t retiring. He isn’t! (I’m sure you can guess which of the five Stages of Grief I’m currently in.)

On the unknowns in the infield.

“I think third base and second base and our infield overall is just going to be a developing story.”

I wouldn’t have thought so much about Cashman’s answer here if he didn’t use “developing story” again later on to describe another aspect of the team. And I fully understand Cashman is going to want to downplay expectations in spring training for a team coming off just it’s second postseasonless season since 1993. But like I have said, I compare the 2014 Yankees to the 2013 Red Sox. I’m not guaranteeing a World Series win, but the 2013 Red Sox were coming off arguably the worst season in the history of their franchise, needed their entire rotation to bounce back and pitch to their career averages (you’re welcome for me not saying “pitch to the back of their baseball cards” there like Michael Kay would have) and have their free agents all produce. The Red Sox ended up hitting a 12-team parlay to have the … no wait a minute … The Red Sox ended up basically filling out a perfect NCAA Tournament bracket to have everything fall in place for them last year to win the World Series a year after they lost 93 games.

In the five-team playoff format, it’s hard to not be in the mix for the postseason unless you have a miserable season. The 2013 Yankees had to use Ichiro in the middle of their lineup and when he wasn’t there, Lyle Overbay and Vernon Wells were and that team wasn’t eliminated until the fourth-to-last game of the season. This Yankees roster will certainly contend for a playoff spot if last years’ team was able to. Now that I have instilled that confidence in you for 2014, let’s move along as Cashman does his best to erase that confidence with his answers.

On how the infield is going to work out.

“The infield is going to be a little bit more like the 2013 situation where we’re going to be continuing to monitor the scenario all year long and if there’s better players outside the organization, waiver claims or guys get released or can cheaply be acquired then we’ll look at that situation too if it’s better than what we got.”

No one wants to hear anything is going to be like 2013 with the exception of Alfonso Soriano’s production. Think about it: What good came out of the 2013 season?

Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira were hurt for the entire season. A-Rod created his biggest circus yet. Robinson Cano was streakier than ever and faded when the Yankees needed him most. CC Sabathia had the worst season of his career. Ivan Nova was an atrocity until he was sent down and then recalled in June. Hiroki Kuroda was amazing, but ran out of gas, pitched to a 6.56 ERA over his last eight starts and didn’t win a game after Aug. 12. Number 42 was better than any 43-year-old closer should be, but he even blew seven saves. For as good as he was after coming to the Yankees in 2012, Ichiro was that bad in 2013. Brett Gardner posted career highs in home runs and RBIs, but got hurt and missed the final weeks of the season. Phil Hughes pitched himself out of the organization. The catching situation was an actual nightmare. And Andy Pettitte was so inconsistent he decided he would retire again. If the Yankees hadn’t traded for Soriano, not only would they have been eliminated well before Game 158, but they wouldn’t have had a single positive storyline from an entire season unless you were that much of a fan of Number 42’s farewell tour.

So please, Cashman, don’t advertise anything about the 2014 season as being similar to the 2013 season.

On where a backup first baseman will come from.

“Well, Kelly Johnson is a possibility. We’ve got some other things that we had some meetings about today in camp that we’re discussing, but we need to talk to players first that we might play around with there too. So that is also something that’s an emerging situation.”

The one thing I like about Brian Cashman is that he tells it like it is. He doesn’t sugarcoat things or fabricate things for the fans. He isn’t always right (far from it), but he sticks with his judgment and opinion on players and decisions and admits when he is or was wrong. But for as honest as Cashman is, he really had no answer for this question. He tried to BS his way through it like a high school freshman trying to meet a word or page requirement on a paper. Not only did he try to downplay the fact that if Mark Teixeira gets hurt the Yankees are screwed at first base, but he sounded unsure of himself and uncomfortable answering the question.

On if Ichiro could be an option at first base.

“His name was not someone that we discussed.”

Ah, a question like this makes me nostalgic for the 2006 season when the Yankees had too many star players and not enough positions. Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui, Jason Giambi, Jorge Posada, Johnny Damon and Bobby Abreu all needed to play, so the Yankees had to let someone who wasn’t really a first baseman play first base. That someone became Gary Sheffield, who played first base as well as Eduardo Nunez played the outfield.

I actually like Francesa’s idea of giving Ichiro a chance to play first base even if he has only ever played the outfield. He did win 10 consecutive Gold Gloves and has an extraordinary baseball IQ and would be someone you could trust at the position. I would certainly be willing to find a way to get Ichiro into the lineup if Teixeira were to go down, but it doesn’t seem like Cashman and the Yankees are ready to think that outside of the box yet.

On how they handled having a backup first baseman in the past.

“When we had Swisher here it was great because if Tex needed a blow or had an injury, you had Swisher who you could move right in there. We’re not in that scenario right now. Not even close.”

When Nick Swisher was here it was great! Everything was better when Nick Swisher was a Yankee! Except for his own decisions to bunt or bunt with one out and a runner on second, or his shaky defense and lollipop throws, or his postseason failures or when he turned on the fans because he didn’t like that they were upset that he couldn’t get a hit in the ALCS. I miss Nick Swisher.

On if Jeter’s decision takes the pressure off him to deal with his status in the future.

“I don’t think that where we are today that would have been an issue. Obviously if it was a contract negotiation in the winter time, that might have presented itself if that occurred, but we weren’t in that scenario.”

Come on, Cashman. You know you are relieved that Jeter is going out on his own terms in the last year of a contract. If 2014 Jeter performed like 2012 Jeter or if he struggled to stay on the field like 2013 Jeter and wanted to return for 2015 it would have created a bad situation for Jeter, Cashman, the front office and the fans and it would have played out publicly just like it did after the 2010 season.

On how Michael Pineda has looked in spring training.

“You want everyone to be free and easy right now. That’s all you can ask for and he’s free and easy, but I don’t think anybody here can predict yet.”

Of all the question marks and unknowns about the 2014 Yankees, Michael Pineda has to be the most underrated of them all. He hasn’t pitched in the majors since Sept. 21, 2011, but was traded to the Yankees and viewed as a front-of-the-rotation guy for the foreseeable future at just 23 years of age. Now he is two years removed from pitching in a game after having shoulder surgery, but he is still just 25.

It’s easy to say if Sabathia returns to his old self and Kuroda doesn’t burn out and Nova is consistent and Tanaka is the real deal then everything will be fine. But I feel like a lot of people are forgetting just how good Pineda was in 2011 and if (and I know coming back from shoulder surgery is a big if) he can be that guy again, then the Yankees will have a No. 1 or No. 2 guy pitching in their No. 5 spot.

On expectations for CC Sabathia.

“I don’t see the velocity jumping back … If he can limit the home run damage that occurred last year because his strikeouts-per-nine and walks-per-nine were right in line with all his previous years, even his Cy Young Award contending years, that will be awesome.”

If CC Sabathia doesn’t allow 28 home runs in 32 starts this year, that will be awesome. CC looks weird as Skinny CC, but if his new look means he won’t pitch to a 4.78 ERA and lead the league in earned runs then I’m all for it. Sabathia has $23 million coming to him this year, or roughly $700,000 per start if you remember from last year, so if his velocity isn’t going to return then he better have Cliff Lee-esque location. I can’t take watching another season of late-game blown leads from Sabathia because of the long ball and because Joe Girardi still treats him like it’s 2011 and like an actual ace.

On how he would classify the bullpen situation.

“It’s also like our infield. Those are two areas that we all need to call an emerging story, a developing story.”

If the bullpen is “also like our infield” that means the 2014 bullpen is going to be like the 2013 bullpen since you said the 2014 infield situation is going to be like the 2013 infield situation. I’m not exactly sure you want to transition from the Mariano Rivera Yankees Bullpen to the Non-Mariano Rivera Yankees Bullpen by classifying the new-look bullpen as an emerging or developing story as if it’s the opening segment on the 11:00 news, but hey, who needs a reliable bullpen?

On if he feels old having watched Derek Jeter’s entire career.

“Unfortunately, like when I was going to the press conference today, I said to myself, ‘I’ve been here before,’ which was just last year with Mo. We’re so fortunate to have these guys for as long as we have had them and they’ve made all of our carers and made Yankee baseball so special to watch for such a long time. But yeah, you do some reflection as you’re walking into that. Time moves fast. It really moves fast. There’s a lot of things that have happened, and mostly positive, since Derek Jeter got drafted back in ’92. Again, I was caught off guard when he announced this and it just makes this season that much more important and interesting to follow because he’s one of the rare special ones you’ll ever see.”

Let’s end this before I cry.

40 days to go.

Blogs • Yankees

Feb 13, 2014

The Derek Jeter Five Stages of Grief

This isn’t goodbye to Derek Jeter. It’s the preparation for the goodbye.

I thought the day Cliff Lee chose the Phillies over the Yankees would be the worst day of my life, but I was wrong. It’s this. And the only reason I thought the day Lee chose the Phillies over the Yankees would be worse is because I thought this day would never happen. But like a kid watching the summer wind down with the inevitability of the school year approaching, this day was going to come.

And when I was a kid watching the summer wind down, Derek Jeter was the shortstop of the Yankees. On April 2, 1996, I was in Miss Ryan’s fourth-grade class when Jeter hit a home run on Opening Day on his first day as the Yankees’ starting shortstop. Fourth grade. I’m now 27. So Jeter’s career spanned elementary school, middle school, junior high, high school, college and now the first five-plus years after college of my life. And during these 18 years, Jeter has kept getting penciled in as the starting shortstop of the Yankees every day in April to October of every year.

In the last 25 months, the Core Four has become just Derek Jeter and in eight-plus months, there won’t be a connection to the ’90s dynasty on the team unless you count Joe Girardi. After the 2014 season, there will never be another Yankee to wear a single-digit number aside from during Old-Timers’ Day.

Derek Jeter is going to retire at the end of the season and leave behind baseball and a whole generation of fans that have come to expect him to be the starting shortstop every day of every summer. So to cope with this, I have turned to the Five Stages of Grief to help me analyze and get through this devastating news in hopes that come October, I will be prepared to move on and accept Mark Teixeira ushering in the next chapter of Yankees baseball. Hang on … Sorry I just threw up in my mouth.

DENIAL
Sometimes I forget that Derek Jeter is 39 and isn’t a 24-year-old shortstop anymore the same way I forget that Eddie Vedder is going to be 50 this December and won’t be climbing a three-story beam to stage dive off of during “Porch” (but I’m happy settling for him swinging on a light fixture to “Porch” like he did in October). And that’s because sometimes I forget that I’m 27 now.

Jorge Posada left and everything was fine. Andy Pettitte left and came back and left again and came back again and is now leaving again and everything will be fine. I got a taste of what life without Mariano Rivera would be like in 2012 after his knee injury, so I am prepared to accept “Sweet Home Alabama” over “Enter Sandman” in the ninth inning at the Stadium. But last year was the first time I was forced to watch the Yankees without Derek Jeter for a very extended period of time and it was weird. There was comfort knowing that he would be back and wasn’t gone forever, but now that there is an actual countdown clock on his career and not just an estimate, it changes everything.

ANGER
When you find out that your favorite player and the last sports icon from your childhood is leaving for business and philanthropy work it doesn’t seem fair. I think Jesse Katsopolis summed it up perfectly in the 1994 Full House episode when following Papouli’s death he said, “I’m so helpless. It’s like if I could have been there, I could have done something. I could have helped him.” I just need Lori Loughlin here to tell me, “There was nothing that you could do. There was nothing that any of us could do.” Since really, Derek Jeter was always going to leave the Yankees and baseball on his own terms.

It’s hard to be angry at Jeter considering at 39 and turning 40 in June, he plays a position that no one plays at his age. No one. When he won the World Series in 2009 as a 35-year-old shortstop, everyone thought that was bananas and I’m sure it led to computers like Carmine to crash, but Jeter has defied odds and logic his entire career and has risen to the occasion and created fairytale-esque stories for every big moment he has been a part of. Whether it was hitting a home run on Opening Day in 1996 or hitting the ball that Jeffrey Maier would pull in or the 2000 World Series or the Flip Play or becoming Mr. November or the catch and dive into the stands or the 3,000th hit day or something as simple as ending the Yankees’ right-handed home run drought last season, Jeter has always done everything in a way that Disney or ABC Family would find too over-the-top and fake life to build a movie storyline around.

BARGAINING
There isn’t really anything for me to bargain with about this unless the Baseball Gods want to take Eduardo Nunez from me instead and force him into retirement. I mean the Baseball Gods have already done me enough favors by having Nick Swisher leave for Cleveland, having A.J. Burnett get traded to Pittsburgh, having Phil Hughes sign with Minnesota, having Boone Logan sign with Colorado and having A-Rod suspended for an entire season to free up $25 million. So I guess letting Robinson Cano leave for Seattle and Jeter retire after two decades makes it all equal.

While awful, the announcement was actually timed perfectly for everyone. For Jeter, it gives the media a firm date for when he will leave the game, so he doesn’t have to answer relentless questions about his contract or how many years he wants to play for and the status of his health. For the Yankees, it gives them time to plan for the future and how they will draft, acquire or sign their first new everyday shortstop in 20 years (and it also gives them time to cash in on all the farewell merchandise and apparel, which I’m sure has Randy Levine dancing around his home to “Shout” in Risky Business-like attire while spraying champagne all over his furniture). And for the fans, it gives them time to plan a trip to the Stadium this summer to see Jeter and not be taken by surprise with a postseason retirement announcement without one last in-person memory of Number 2.

DEPRESSION
Thanks for those who sent the sympathy texts, emails and tweets and also to those who sent the “Get Well Soon” cards.

You’re supposed to keep busy during this period so I have been watching The Wire every free second I have and thankfully there’s Team USA’s quest for the gold medal to watch and look forward to. And the Rangers will be back in a couple weeks and then there’s March and March Madness and nice weather not too far away. See, everything is going to be fine. I’m going to be fine. It’s going to be fine.

ACCEPTANCE
We are a long way from this. I’m talking years. Maybe one day when I have kids of my own and they have a favorite Yankee (sorry, Brittni, they won’t be Dodgers fans), maybe then I will learn to accept that Derek Jeter isn’t a Yankee. The more concerning thing is if this is how I feel after he announces his retirement, how will I feel once he actually retires? Hopefully I have more than eight months to find out.

The good thing about this announcement is that it isn’t goodbye, yet. I wanted to write something about this announcement because I felt it made sense to, but I didn’t want it to drag on in a 5,000-word sappy goodbye letter. But don’t worry, I will have those 5,000 words (at least) in October. I will save my best and most deserving goodbye for Jeter when he actually leaves. It will be way more over the top than the ones I gave to Jorge Posada in January 2012 and Andy Pettitte this past October and the one I plan on giving to Mariano Rivera prior to Opening Day and the first year without Number 42 in the bullpen.

For now, I will soak it all in. Every walk-up to the plate with Bob Sheppard’s voice pouring out of the Stadium and echoing onto River Ave. for everyone at The Dugout and Billy’s and Bald Vinny’s House of Tees to hear. Every immediate glove wave to Section 203 before the first “DER-EK JE-TER” of roll call can even be completed. Every boo (or now appreciate applause) he receives on the road. Every Boston fan wearing a “Jeter Drinks Wine Coolers” or “Jeter Sucks A-Rod” shirt. Every emphatic clap while standing on first or second after a big hit. Every over-the-top first pump in the field after the game-ending play. Everything. And then when that final game comes, I will be ready to say goodbye.

Blogs • Yankees

Aug 14, 2013

The Joe Girardi Show: Season 4, Episode 2

The Yankees are fighting to keep their postseason aspirations alive, but that isn’t stopping Joe Girardi from giving players unnecessary rest.

Michael Kay: “How many games do the Yankees need to win the rest of the way to get into the playoffs?”

Joe Girardi: “Thirty-five, maybe. It might take 35 to get in.”

That’s what happened on an actual episode of The Joe Girardi Show on YES on Saturday night after the Yankees lost to the Tigers, leaving the team with a 58-57 record. If Girardi truly believed on Saturday night that a 93-69 record was needed to make the playoffs, that would mean the Yankees would have go to 35-12 the rest of the way. That’s a .745 winning percentage for a team that through Saturday’s loss had gone 28-39 since starting the season 30-18.

Do you see where I’m going with this? It’s time for another episode of my version of The Joe Girardi Show. Let’s call this episode “Unnecessary Rest.”

What the eff was that lineup on Tuesday night?
You said on Saturday the team had to win 35 of their remaining 47 games to make the playoffs. You won the first two games after saying so and with the team feeling good about itself for the first time in five weeks, here’s the lineup you put together on Tuesday:

Eduardo Nunez, SS
Alfonso Soriano, LF
Robinson Cano, 2B
Alex Rodriguez, DH
Vernon Wells, RF
Curtis Granderson, CF
Jayson Nix, 3B
Lyle Overbay, 1B
Austin Romine, C

Brett Gardner had been 6-for-18 (.333) over the last four games with a home run and 3 RBIs and two walk-off hits against the Tigers in three days. He was on the bench on Tuesday.

Ichiro Suzuki had been 6-for-16 over the last five games. He was on the bench on Tuesday.

Eduardo Nunez had one multi-hit game since July 23 in Texas and is hitting .184 against left-handed pitching this season. Let’s have him hit leadoff against a lefty!

Jayson Nix is hitting .232, .261 against lefties and is 3-for-17 (.176) since coming off the disabled list. Let’s have him in the lineup at all!

Now the Yankees put up 14 runs, which tied a season-high (they also scored 14 on April 9 in Cleveland in the eighth game of the season), and me questioning the lineup after such a win seems ridiculous, but I have to because I questioned it when it was originally announced and after the game started, so I have to here as well to stand my ground.

But you caught a break, Joe, because of a terrible call by home plate umpire David Rackley on Chris Nelson for leaving early on an inning-ending double play in the sixth, which would have tied the game at 4. This led to Mike Scioscia deciding he was going to make Rackley make as many trips to the mound as possible to break up mound visits for the rest of the game as Scioscia used four relievers over the final 3 2/3 innings (though Girardi would have used six over that time without being furious with an umpire). You caught a break, but don’t let it happen again. Don’t let me see Jayson Nix starting another game with A-Rod and Nunez healthy.

Was it really necessary to give A-Rod a day off on Saturday?
On Friday night, Miguel Cabrera fouled a 1-2 pitch from Mariano Rivera off his leg and limped around, wincing in pain, enough pain that Jim Leyland and the Tigers trainer had to come out and check on him. And then he fouled the next pitch of the at-bat off his leg as well. Two pitches later he hit a 427-foot two-run home run to straightaway center field, reaching the net in Monument Park.

On Saturday, Cabrera was back in the lineup and went 3-for-5 with another home run.

And on Sunday, Cabrera beat Number 42 again, on a 2-2 pitch to lead off the ninth inning in what would end up being a third straight blown save for Number 42.

Since fouling those two balls off his body on Friday night against Rivera, Cabrera is 8-for-18 with four home runs and five RBIs and has started all the games since for the Tigers. (Update: He hit another home run on Wednesday.)

On Saturday, Alex Rodriguez wasn’t in the lineup. Why? Here’s what you said about it, Joe:

“It’s a day-by-day. You think about that we had a real late night last night. If we didn’t have that late night, maybe I play him today. It would have been the first day game after a night game. I’m just trying to be proactive in this and make sure that we don’t run him into the ground, where he ends up hurting something else.”

DO YOU NOT REALIZE HOW MANY GAMES ARE LEFT IN THE SEASON? DO YOU NOT SEE THE DEFICIT THE YANKEES NEED TO OVERCOME TO WIN THE DIVISION OR A WILD CARD? IS THIS THE FIRST DAY GAME AFTER A NIGHT GAME HE WOULD BE PLAYING IN HIS CAREER? WHAT ARE YOU BEING PROACTIVE ABOUT? WHY AREN’T YOU TRYING TO RUN HIM INTO THE GROUND? YOU OWE HIM $28 MILLION THIS SEASON! HE JUST HAD A 10-MONTH BREAK! HE IS APPEALING A 211-GAME SUSPENSION! HE MOST LIKLEY ISN’T PLAYING BASEBALL IN 2014 AND MIGHT NEVER PLAY AGAIN! RUN HIM INTO THE GROUND! RUN HIM INTO THE EFFING GROUND!

Sure, Cabrera is 30 years old and the best player in the world and A-Rod is a 38-year-old declining star coming off a second hip surgery in four years, but Jim Leyland had no reason to put Cabrera in the lineup the day after a scary incident like that (which could have destroyed the Tigers season) with the Tigers holding an eight-game lead that day over the Indians. Meanwhile, A-Rod had an off day on Thursday, two days prior to Saturday’s loss, and had played in just four games in 10 months. And he gets a day off for an afternoon game like some backup catcher? Are you effing kidding me? Keep on resting everyone, Joe. Keep on resting everyone like it’s September 2010 again because you have such a big lead on a playoff spot.

Speaking of Cabrera and those home runs against Number 42 …

Why didn’t Mariano Rivera pitch the ninth inning on Monday?
There are 44 games left in the Yankees season today, which means there are 44 games left in Mariano Rivera’s career. But really there are way fewer games left in Rivera’s career because he won’t pitch in all 44. That should mean that it’s time to empty the tank and the right arm of the best relief pitcher in the history of baseball, but for some reason you’re saving Rivera’s right arm for a postseason that might not happen and a 2014 season that’s not happening. Now isn’t the time to count Rivera’s pitches and worry about his innings. I’m pretty sure Mariano Rivera would rather his last game ever be in a postseason setting rather than in the final home game of the season against the Rays on September 26, and even if the Yankees don’t make the playoffs, I’m sure he wants to do everything possible to try to.

On Monday night, the day after Rivera had blown his third straight save, with the Yankees leading the Angels 2-0 in a must-win game at the Stadium, you decided to give your closer a rest and gave the ball to Boone Logan to start the ninth before going to David Robertson for the final two outs of the game. The Angels scored a run to make it 2-1 and with the bases loaded and two outs and a full count on Chris Nelson, Robertson got Nelson to swing at a pitch that would have cleared the backstop betting if Nelson had taken it. Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win! But if anyone else other than Chris “Designated For Assignment” Nelson had been up, the game is likely tied or the Angels are ahead and we’re probably talking about the most obvious second-guess of all time.

I don’t care that Rivera blew a save against the White Sox on Wednesday night and I don’t care that he gave up two home runs to the best hitter on the planet and a fellow first-ballot Hall of Famer and blew two saves against the Tigers in three days. I don’t care that Rivera has blown three straight saves for the first time in his 17 years as a closer. If the Yankees have a lead in the ninth inning and it’s a save opportunity and the starter isn’t going for a complete game then Number 42 better be in the game. No exceptions.

Blogs • Yankees

Aug 8, 2013

The Yankees’ Nightmare Season Is Over

The Yankees still have 49 games left, but after getting swept by the White Sox, their season is over.

I kept watching the Yankees-White Sox game on Monday night until the end the same way that I watched You Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Funny People and Five-Year Engagement until the end.

I kept watching the Yankees-White Sox game on Tuesday night as the Yankees strung me along long enough to watch them lose a 1-0 lead as Hiroki Kuroda proved to be human before the offense left me with a case of Yankee blue balls following a failed comeback attempt in the ninth.

I kept watching the Yankees-White Sox game on Wednesday night as CC Sabathia let another lead dwindle because Joe Girardi gave him the chance to let it dwindle before Number 42 blew the lead and the game with the White Sox down to their final strike before Adam “Automatic Extra-Inning Loss” Warren blew the lead and the game three innings later with the White Sox down to their final strike again.

I kept watching these games because I thought the Yankees could get back on track in Chicago before returning home to play 11 of their next 14 games in Yankee Stadium. I thought this because I’m an a-hole.

When the Yankees left for their eight-game road trip last week I wanted at least a 5-3 record after their stops in Los Angeles, San Diego and Chicago. When they left Los Angeles after splitting the two-game series with the Dodgers, I wanted at least four wins in the six games against the Padres and White Sox. When they left San Diego after dropping two of three to the Padres, I wanted a sweep of the White Sox. When they lost the first game of the series to the White Sox, I wanted the next two. When they lost the second game of the series, I didn’t want the last one … I had to have the last one. When they lost the last one, I realized the season is over.

After starting the season 30-18, the Yankees are 27-38 since and have strung us along long enough to think that if the injury bug would take just a 15-minute break from destroying the season that the Yankees could put together some kind of run like the Rays, Royals and Dodgers have put together to turn their seasons around. But the injury bug hasn’t stopped since Curtis Granderson went down in his first at-bat in spring training and on top of the injuries to Granderson, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Kevin Youkilis, Francisco Cervelli, Eduardo Nunez and Jayson Nix (I only added in the last two names to show how deep it’s gone and not because they bring much value to the team), the guys who have been healthy might as well have been hurt this whole time.

CC Sabathia has won once since June 22 despite being the “ace” of the staff and making $676,470.59 per start and $23 million this season. He leads the league in hits and earned runs and could finish under .500 for the first time in his 13-year career and will most likely post the highest ERA of his career.

Andy Pettitte has been every bit as bad as a 41-year-old starter should be and might finish under .500 for the first time in his 18-year career with the highest ERA of his career. (Hopefully his family won’t let him leave Texas this winter when it comes time to deciding if he wants to be at home or in the majors.)

Phil Hughes has continued to prove that if you’re a first-round pick you will be given unlimited chances to prove that the scouting department didn’t screw up when they touted you as a No. 1/No. 2 starter. He has a 4-10 record for a team that’s above .500 (but might not be after this weekend), has won one game since June 6 and just nine of his 21 starts have been quality starts. Over the last three years he’s been every bit as bad as A.J. Burnett was during his three years with the Yankees and if he had a five-year, $82.5 million contract he would be equally as hated.

Robinson Cano has looked anything but a guy who was supposed to carry an injury-plagued team or a guy that is supposed to be the face of the franchise for the future or a guy who is in a contract year and looking to be paid a nine-figure salary. On Wednesday night, Cano hit his first home run since July 10 and he’s 14-for-67 (.209) with six RBIs in the 18 games since the All-Star break. It’s no coincidence the Yankees are 6-12 since the All-Star break.

Despite 60 percent of the rotation being atrocious, and another 20 percent of it (Ivan Nova) only pitching well since June 23, and the Yankees’ only reliable offensive threat taking weeks off at a time in Cano, I still thought if the Yankees could tread water they would be fine. I pretended like the season would last forever and Game 162 wouldn’t come until the Yankees had clinched a playoff berth even as the losses piled up and Joe Girardi sat back and lost games with Mariano Rivera still sitting in the bullpen. (He must be saving his arm for 2014.) It wasn’t until the 10th inning on Wednesday night in Chicago that Girardi showed urgency for the first time in 2013 by asking Rivera to pitch a second inning. But last Tuesday in Los Angeles, Girardi chose not to use David Robertson for a second inning after Robertson threw just nine pitches in the eighth. Instead, Girardi brought in Shawn Kelley and four batters later the game was over. I guess that game against the Dodgers eight days prior to last night’s game was just not as important and didn’t count as much in the standings.

I also thought Jeter and A-Rod and Granderson would come back and provide a boost and that Sabathia, Pettitte and Hughes couldn’t suck forever. (Well, at least Sabathia and Pettitte.) And that’s right, I thought 38-year-old A-Rod, who’s coming off a second major hip surgery in four calendar years and who hasn’t hit a home run in the majors since Sept. 14, 2012, including the playoffs, and who has just one extra-base hit (a double against the Red Sox on Oct. 3) since then, including the playoffs, could be part of the solution to saving the Yankees. (Now would be a good time for Stevie Janowski to ask me who the eff I am for thinking that A-Rod could turn around the Yankees season at a time of desperation.) Part of this was because I remembered the last time A-Rod returned from a hip surgery and PED attention in 2009 when he turned the Yankees season around and carried them to their World Series win. (The 2009 Yankees were 21-17 (.552) without A-Rod and 82-42 (.661) with him in the lineup.) And the other part of it was that even if A-Rod came back and was as bad as he was in the 2012 postseason, he would still be better than David Adams, Luis Cruz, Alberto Gonzalez, Brent Lillibridge, Jayson Nix and Eduardo Nunez. But like the girl who looks attractive among her group of friends only because her friends aren’t attractive, A-Rod was never going to save the Yankees like he did four years ago. And that’s without me factoring in the negative attention focused on him for his 211-game suspension and now his appeal and the fact that he’s A-Rod and just about everyone in Major League Baseball wants a piece of him at this point the way everybody wanted a piece of Frank Lucas in in American Gangster when Richie Roberts told him, “I got a line of people wanting to testify that stretches out the door and around the block … and the only thing they hate more than you is what you represent.”

The Yankees have 49 games left. At 11 games behind the Red Sox and 9 1/2 behind the Rays, the division is out of the question and has been for a while. If the Red Sox (70-46) play .500 baseball and go 23-23 to finish the season, the Yankees (57-56) will need to go 36-13 just to tie them. But the Red Sox aren’t going to play .500 baseball and the Yankees, who haven’t won back-to-back games since July 11 and 12, sure as eff aren’t going to play .667 baseball.

And if you think the second wild card is an option (with the first wild card going to the Red Sox or Rays), think again with the Rangers holding a seven-game lead over the Yankees and with the Orioles, Indians and Royals all ahead of the Yankees.

I thought the 2008 Yankees gave me the worst summer of baseball imaginable when they became the first Yankees team to not make the playoffs since 1993 and closed out the Stadium with a meaningless September game against the Orioles. But despite the disabled list ruining most of that season and Darrell Rasner and Sidney Ponson ruining the rest of it, at least that team won 89 games, which was enough to win the AL Central that season and would have been enough for a wild-card berth in today’s postseason format. The 2013 Yankees have been worse and will need to go 32-17 to match the 2008 Yankees’ record and even then they will still end up closing out Mariano Rivera’s career the way they closed the old Stadium.

Yogi Berra once said, “It ain’t over ’til it’s over.” But Yogi didn’t have to catch Sabathia, Pettitte or Hughes and he didn’t have to play with Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Eduardo Nunez or Jayson Nix.

Tag: Eduardo Nunez

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