Torn and Flushed Away

            The 2014 Yankee season took a death blow this week with the announcement that Masahiro Tanaka has a partial tear in his right elbow and the dreadful cloud of Tommy John surgery hangs over the $155 million dollar import. Tanaka had kept the mediocre and underwhelming Yankee roster in the AL East mix with his league-high 12 wins, but with Tanaka gone, any hopes of playing significant baseball in October is as likely as a clean toilet at the Port Authority Bus Terminal.



            Perhaps it was all the innings he racked up as a young player in Japan, perhaps it was all the 7-8 inning performances he gave nearly every start for the Yankees, perhaps his was the arm-action on his superior-level splitters, but Tanaka has fallen victim to the rash of elbow tears that has spread all over MLB pitchers during the past two seasons. Currently, doctors have laid out two options for the Yankee ace; either rest and rehab across 6-8 weeks in which possibly the ligaments could heal themselves, or the more scary Tommy John procedure which will have Tanaka out of action till the end of the 2015 season.



            Even if the Yankees and Tanaka do attempt the rehab and return path for this season, sooner or later that weak ligament is going to snap, so Tommy John surgery asap versus later is likely the wiser choice. The news wasn't any better for any of the other injured Yankee starters: CC Sabathia and Michael Pineda. On a minor league assignment, Sabathia experienced discomfort in his bulky knee and it was later revealed he has a micro-fracture that will certainly end his 2014 season and possibly baseball career. The decision to resign him to a long deal after he opted out of his first Yankee contract is looking as dreadful as the A-Rod contract. Pineda has been trying some long toss drills to test out that bad muscle pull under his shoulder blade, but at best he could be ready by late August and by then the Yankees will probably be too buried in the standings to make much of a difference. Hiroki Kuroda remains as the only reliable starter left in the Yankee rotation, but he's pushing 40 and hasn't been as effective as the past two seasons. The honeymoon seems to have ended for Chase Whitley, who has gotten clobbered in his past couple of starts, so Brian Cashman has been a busy bee to try to find some bandaids to cover the holes in the dike.  



            Once Nuno and Whitley stopped giving quality starts that was badly taxing the bullpen, Cashman sent the young Nuno off to Arizona in a trade for veteran righthander Brandon McCarthy Although McCarthy is a journeyman who throws sinkers and sliders, he'll more likely be able to eat up enough innings so Girardi can save his bullpen from wearing out during these hot summer months. Once the news was out on Tanaka, Cashman also make a trade with Oakland to bring in another veteran mediocre starter, Jeff Francis. A few weeks ago Cashman had the Yanks in the running to pick up Cubs ace Jeff Samardzija and middle-rotation man Jason Hammel in a trade, but the very same Oakland A's were able to offer a better package of prospects and they landed the two starters instead. The Yankees did bring up Shane Greene and he was very impressive in his first career start, but Chase Whitley also looked good in his first couple of starts before getting belted around. So a rotation which had Sabathia/Tanaka/Kuroda/Nova/Pineda in Spring Training is now looking like Kuroda/Phelps/McCarthy/Francis/Greene. David Price and Cliff Lee should be available around the trade deadline, but the likelihood of Tampa helping the Yankees in their own division is extremely slim, and Cliff Lee still has $50 million left on his contract, which is doubtful the Yankees are willing spend after the money lost on Tanaka, Sabathia, and the underwhelming performances of McCann and Beltran. Speaking of Beltran, he took a line drive off his nose in batting practice and has been placed on the new Concussion 7-Day DL. This year's Yankees just can't get the injury bug out of the lockeroom.



            Brian Cashman has also been busy trying to do something to spark this pitiful lineup. The slack on Alfonso Soriano finally was cut as he was designated for assignment. After a magnificent return to the Yankees at last year's trade deadline, this season Soriano has been terrible and getting rid of him allowed a much needed roster spot. Yangervis Solarte was a great human-interest story towards the beginning of the season, but he too became an automatic out and started to get sloppy at thirdbase, so he was sent down in favor of Zelous Wheeler. Kelly Johnson proves to be a bust and he's in danger of being designated for assignment as well. The offense has struggled to put runs on the board and now this weak starting pitching staff is going to be asked to achieve the impossible. The saddest part is, like Mariano's retirement last year, the Yankees will be playing for nothing in late September when Derek Jeter says his final goodbyes.

Position: 46-46 (3rd Place AL East - 5 games behind 1st Place Baltimore Orioles

Homeruns:
- Brett Gardner has emerged as a bright spot in a dull lineup with tying his career-high in homers per season with 8 and there's half of season still to go. 
- Dellin Bentances has been formally recognized as one of the best bullpen arms in baseball and has been selected to the 2014 All-Star game. 
- Zelous Wheeler hit a homerun in his first major league career game and looks to be a better defender at third than Solarte. 
- Mark Teixeira continues to slug homeruns with his surgical repaired wrist. 

Foul Tips:
- Hitting coach Kevin Long identified a toe-tap in Brian McCann's swing and had it removed. Since then McCann has been hitting a little better, but overall has been an underperformer at the plate.
- Jacoby Ellsbury seems to have fought his way out of a slump and has been hitting a few balls over the walls. 
- David Phelps quietly continues to give the Yankees good starts, but unfortunately for him the team never gives him enough runs to get loud wins. 

Strikeouts:
- Masahiro Tanaka has a tear in his elbow and he's likely done for 2014 and part of 2015. 
- CC Sabathia's knee contains a microfracture and he's shelved for 2014, indefinitely 
- Alfonso Soriano was sent packing (it was nice to see you again). 
- Kelly Johnson is hitting a putrid .215 with only 5 homeruns at the halfway point; the Yanks were counting on him to hit about 18-20. 



             The AL East is still a shameful display of baseball, so as banged up as the Yankees are, they'll probably be able to stay within an arm's distance of the division leader. Eventually, the lack of consistent starting pitching is going to carry over to the bullpen, and when the bullpen blows leads that the woeful offense was able to grab, that locker room will melt down.

              I'm sure Derek Jeter wishes he retired back in Spring Training instead.........

Playing in the Citi

            After a start to the season that showed promise, the Yankees have fallen into a pit about the size of CitiField and are as about as exciting to watch as the Mets.

         





            Like the Mets; the Yankees can pitch well and hold opponents down (for the most part), but they've been lucky if they could even scratch across two runs per game. Teixeira's surgically repaired wrist tendons are getting rusty really quick, someone speared Carlos Beltran's elbow with something from 10,000 BC, and the "game-changing" Jacoby Ellsbury from April has been abducted by aliens.


            Having Teixeira and Beltran out of the lineup for a couple of weeks forced Girardi to take Ellsbury out of the leadoff spot and bat him third; taking away the man who was getting singles, stealing, and scoring runs as a leadoff hitter in April. Admittedly, Ellsbury has taken the #3 role to heart and has been swinging (and missing) for the fences - hence the drop off in his production. Rest for Teixeira and a series of cortisone (narcotics) shots for Beltran have gotten them back into the lineup in recent days, but the time away has taken any momentum out of the Yankee offense and these two will have to deal with these nagging issues all season long. Players who needed to step up in their place, such as Kelly Johnson or Ichiro (as an everyday player) just haven't been producing enough. A "hot" Soriano has yet to show up this season and although McCann has finally bopped some homers, overall his batting average zone of .210-.220 gives chilly reminders of Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin.



            This has subsequently placed an enormous amount of pressure of the Yankee's pitching staff, which is asking alot with the absence of three-fifths of the starting rotation. Nova, of course, is done for the year with Tommy John surgery under his belt. Sabathia is only now beginning to walk on a treadmill to rehab his weak knee, but even GM Brian Cashman has no sure date of his return. Realistically August, at best. Even if he does come back, what kind of CC Sabathia are the Yankee getting? On the road to his recovery from a strained back muscle and pine tar poisoning, Michael Pineda suffered a set back with the same muscle area and had to be placed on the 60-Day DL. The likes of David Phelps, Vidal Nuno, and feel-good story Chase Whitley has kept the rotation respectable, but all three aren't durable enough to go seven innings and throw a hundred-plus pitches every fifth day for the rest of the season. The trio of young arms from the system and the mega signing of Tanaka are the main reason the Yankees are .500 at 31-31 and not below that mark. Tanaka is certainly the Yankees' MVP at 9-1 with his only loss as a result of giving up 4 runs in a game (shame on you!). He certainly won't go 24-0 this season, but with the way he's pitching he looks like he can go 24-1 and he's definitely outshining Cashman's other winter free-agency acquisitions.



          The other bright spot during this disappointing period of the season for the Yankees has been their relatively young and untested bullpen. David Robertson has finally coughed up a few leads as the closer, but the collection of Adam Warren and Dellin Bentances continue to be one of the best 1-2 punches in baseball to get the ball to the 9th inning. With Shawn Kelley due back soon, Girardi can piece together the final 4 innings of most of these games (especially until Sabathia and Pineda can come back). With all that, the onus is on the offense to pick up the slack. Yankee pitching has to be allowed to give up 4-5 runs once in a while and not lose the game. It helps that Robinson Cano is stuck on two homeruns still for 2014, but this offense is looking as lame and putrid as 2013's version that didn't make the playoffs. Eventually, the lack of offense last season took its toll on Kuroda and the staff as a whole and by mid-September the entire team was shot. Ellsbury, Jeter, Beltran, Teixeira, McCann, and Soriano have to be better than this.

Position: 31-31 (3rd Place AL East - 6 games behind 1st Place Toronto Blue Jays)

Homeruns:
- Tanaka continues to prove he's completely legitimate and can dominate in America (and Canada). 
- Dellin Bentances' brilliance in the 7th and 8th innings have drawn comparison to a 1996 Rivera.
- The Yankees might have a blue collar discovery in Chase Whitley; his three-year wait in AAA has paid off with a 1-0 record in five starts with an impressive 2.42 ERA. 
- Yangervis Solarte's average has dipped down to an earthly .299, but he's the team-leader in that category as well as RBIs with 28. 

Foul-Tips:
- Mark Teixeira's wrist keep barking every couple of days and it will be necessary to give his bat and glove a rest more than the team would want. 
- If Beltran's cortisone shot doesn't prove to be the answer, then surgery to remove the bone spur from his elbow will have him out for 8 weeks, in definitely. 
- Huroki Kuroda has yet to get on a roll this season and perhaps Cashman rolled the dice with him one season too many. 
- Derek Jeter's legs have held up to play shortstop on a consistent basis, but his current .254 batting average isn't exactly ending his career with a bang.

Strikeouts:
- Kelly Johnson's play at first base and at the plate in Teixeira's time of absence has been doubly atrocious. As a result, Scott Sizemore was called up to take Johnson's time away at 3rd base. 
- Alfonso Soriano has shown no reminiscence of the Soriano of the second-half of 2013 when the Yankees traded for him. 
- Michael Pineda was finally making Cashman look like Einstein with the Montero trade, but the stupid choices concerning the placement of pine tar on his body with the world watching him and these lame back/shoulder muscle pulls have put Pineda back into the 'Carl Pavano' dunce corner. 

            For all the Yankees' issues, especially with scoring runs, they probably have the least amount of worries outside of the Toronto Blue Jays - who aren't going to keep up their current torrid pace. The usual suspects in Boston and Tampa have gone on uncharacteristically long losing streaks, upwards of ten games in a row for Beantown. Tampa has also suffered key injuries such as Scott Moore for the year and phenom Will Myers for a couple of months with a stress fracture. Being 6 games back in early June is no major concern, but the Yankees have to start hitting like a major league team......