Derek Jeter in a Post-DJ3K World--What's Next?

Last weekend, Derek Jeter reached and eclipsed the 3,000 hit plateau with inimitable, Jeterian flair. But now that the warm glow of the DJ3K honeymoon has receded, the Yankees, as a franchise, could be excused for asking the Captain "What's next?" After all, they owe him $40 million more over the next two-and-a-half seasons. During the first week of Jeter's DL stint, Mark Feinsand of the Daily News, who appears on the "Daily News Fifth" segment of the Yankees' WCBS radio broadcast, noted that if you erase the names and look at the stats, batting Brett Gardner leadoff is a no-brainer.  That's not particularly insightful, mind you, but that kind of clear-headed, independent thought qualifies as revolutionary during a broadcast that features Yankee mouthpieces Suzyn Waldman and John Sterling.  Basically, if you bump The Captain off of leadoff, the only logical place to put him is at or near the bottom of the order.  And you can't do that to The Captain.  The horse (in the form of A-Rod's criminally insane contract) is already out of the barn, but the strained tone of Jeter's last contract negotiation suggests the Yankees have realized that the lionization of certain individuals isn't necessarily good for business, especially when you have one of the strongest brands in international sports history. What Jeter does next--in terms of accepting a move off of SS or a move down the order--will challenge the Yankees' powers of image management. In English soccer, there's a cliche that "No player is bigger than the club."  The Yankees may be belatedly coming around to that school of thought.

Boondoggle--Boone Logan May Be the Key to the Yankees' Bullpen . . . and Season

Despite achieving considerable success at the helm of the Florida Marlins and New York Yankees, Joe Girardi doesn't always look the part of a respected baseball manager. His appearance lacks a Piniellaesque gravitas.  Maybe it's his diminutive stature, somewhat baggy uniform or mouth full of braces. On Tuesday night, though, when Joe marched out of the dugout to make a pitching change in the ninth inning of the Yankees' win over the Cincinnati Reds, I wouldn't have crossed his path if you paid me. It wasn't so much that Girardi looked angry, he looked downright murderous. Not that I blamed him, mind you. Watching Boone Logan pitch can do that to a man.


Logan, who had just come on in relief of the similarly unreliable Luis Ayala, inherited a runner on first and was tasked with retiring reigning NL MVP Joey Votto. If successful, he probably would have been allowed to mop up the final outs to give Mariano Rivera the night off. Alas, it wasn't to be. Logan promptly plunked Votto with his first pitch and out stormed Girardi in a hot funk.

A Yankee fan, upon realizing that Boone Logan
may have to face David Ortiz in the ALCS. 

BOONE OR BUST?

Here's the problem with Boone Logan--he's a LOOGY (Lefty One Out GuY) who's not very good at getting left-handed batters out. Over the course of six MLB seasons, lefties have a .252 batting average against him, and while that's not terrible, it's not really the kind of dominance contending teams are looking for out of a left-handed specialist. And this year, as Logan has relied on a low-90s fastball and slider, lefties are hitting him at a .286 clip.  It's a small sample size, of course, but it's unimpressive and indicative of his mediocrity. Ultimately, it's his career numbers, compiled over more than 800 batters faced, that put to rest the argument that the Yankees have to wait until Logan "comes around." At this point in his career, what you see is what you get--a guy with WHIP nearing 1.6 who doesn't miss enough bats (his K/BB ratio is only 1.77).


Now, here's the other problem with Boone Logan--he's the only LOOGY the Yankees have, and he's out of options, meaning he cannot be sent down to the minors until he clears waivers. Given the sad state of the LOOGY population throughout the league, if the Yankees let him go, he'll get snapped up by another, still more desperate team. It wasn't supposed to be like this. Logan was supposed to be a guy who kept his warm up jacket on and watched from the 'pen as Pedro Feliciano, fresh off a dominant 2010 campaign with the Mets, handled high-leverage LOOGY situations in the Bronx. Feliciano, though, turned out to be a carrier of the dreaded Mets injury bug and was diagnosed with a torn shoulder capsule that has kept him out since April; the date of his return is still uncertain. That means, for the time begin at least, Logan is the Yankees' man. That's not good. Over the past couple of days, you can sense the unease in Yankeeland as people begin to realize that the Yankees will eventually need a lefty to face guys like Adrian Gonzalez, David Ortiz or Carl Crawford in late inning situations in September and October. It's becoming clear that if that lefty is Boone Logan, this season could turn out to be a bust.

Denial in Yankeeland--The Red Sox Can (and Probably Will) Ruin Our Summah

As a lifelong fan of the New York Yankees, I have a some fond memories of the legendary 1998 team that won 125 games en route to World Series sweep of the sacrificial San Diego Padres. In particular, though, I vividly remember watching a May game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was the second time the teams had met that season, and the day earlier, a Sox lineup of pseudo "stars" (Mo Vaugh) and bona fide scrubs (Darren Lewis, Troy O'Leary, Jon Valentin, Darren Bragg, Mike Benjamin and Lou Merloni) had, behind Tim Wakefield, somehow won the opening game of the series. The next day, normal service was restored, and as the Yankees were putting the sword to the Sox on their way to a 12-3 rout, one of their announces (Ken Singleton, maybe?) said, "This is just one team telling another, 'Hey we're better than you.'" While watching the Sox administer the second Bronx beat down of this season earlier this week, those words floated back to me in a kind of Proustian memory. Except this time, it was the Sox who were emphatically delivering that message.

You would think that even those Yanks fans who see the world though rose-tinted, pinstriped glasses issued by YES Network, the Bomber's in-house propaganda arm, couldn't deny that the Sox are a superior team. In fact, the question of whether the Sox are currently better than the Yankees is no longer a subjective one. Unfortunately, it is a fact that the answer is "Yes." These last few games served as a kind of mathematical proof. To argue to the contrary is to deny objective reality and betray a mind warped by homerism. It would be like asserting that John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman are a good radio broadcast team or that Tom Brady's haircut is actually cool. These kind of delusional statements are like dog whistles signaling your listeners that you don't know what the hell you are talking about.

And yet, if you choose to crawl down the rabbit hole of sports talk radio, you'll hear people like WFAN host Mike Francesa argue that the Yankees are as good as or better than the Sox. The current standings, this line of argument theorizes, are skewed by Boston's dominance of this year's head-to-head match-up. But doesn't that head-to-head dominance actually verify their superiority? Whatever. This kind of denial is made more irrational by the reality that it doesn't matter who is the best team in early June. Of course, Yankee fans shouldn't be too optimistic about the Yankees overhauling the Red Sox anytime soon, especially now that the bullpen is in shambles and Bartolo Colon just injured one of his ponderous legs.  That the health of Colon matters this much is, in and of itself, troubling, but without beefy Bartolo and his magic arm, we're left with the tragicomic prospect of watching A.J. Burnett pitch Game 2 of a post-season series. The Yanks will likely look to make a move before the deadline, but, then again, won't the Sox, as well? As much as I'd like to deny it, the truth is it could be a while before the Yankees can once again tell the Red Sox, "Hey, we're better than you."