It's not Joba Chamberlain's confinement to the eighth inning. It's not Ian Kennedy's or Phil Hughes' wobbly starts. Instead, it's the offense, which led the major leagues with 968 runs last year but before Tuesday night's 9-5 victory over the White Sox, was averaging just 4.3 runs per game, last in the American League East.
What’s wrong? Just about everything: The veterans have either been hurt (Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada) or useless (Johnny Damon and Jason Giambi). Perhaps the most surprising under-performance of the month is coming from Robinson Cano, who signed a four-year, $30 million deal over the winter, and since has sputtered his way to a .173 average.
Despite that zero-sweat style of play, Cano has flourished in pinstripes; he batted .342 in 2006 and drove in 97 runs last year. But one major league talent evaluator who tracks the Yankees predicted Cano would suffer in 2008 after Joe Torre went west and took third base coach Larry Bowa with him.
It was old-school, in-your-face Bowa who kept Cano focused. The scout said that upon Bowa's decision to join Torre's staff in Los Angeles, "I had a feeling Cano would suffer because of it."
Cano's offensive low point last year was on when he was hitting .234 on May 16th and 17th when the Yankees were in Chicago playing against these same White Sox. Cano didn't reach the .280 mark until July 21nd, but after that day his avg. never dipped below .285 for the remainder of the season. A year where he finished with a .306 BA.“The fact that Robby’s started slowly hasn’t changed my opinion of him, not one bit,” general manager Brian Cashman said by telephone on Tuesday. “He works hard, and has worked hard. To say otherwise makes for a good story, but it’s not reality. He wants to be the best second baseman in the history of the franchise, that’s his makeup.
“People who are down and dirty with him know that.”
Cashman says it’s a combination of “bad luck” and cold weather that have depressed Cano’s average. And he also hints that slow starts are sometimes part of great hitters’ profiles. “Just like Bernie Williams or Don Mattingly,” the GM said. “We’ll wait it out on Robby.”
Once Cano starts hitting he is one of the more consistent hitters in the game, and can raise his average in the blink of an eye.
We may be see signs that he's coming out of his slump; yesterday we saw him blast that double to the opposite field, which is a good sign. I think that was only his 2nd or 3rd hit to the left field, and as soon as he starts going the other way more often, his average will start to rise, and rise quickly.
I certainly can't disagree that having him slump like this has held back this team a bit, but so did Damon's slump, and Giambi's slump.
more, Giambi's, Damon's, or Cano's?
9 Comments:
I think Damons has hurt more, he's the table setter and up until last night's game, he really hasn't done much. When he gets on base in front of the big guys, big things happen. As we saw yesterday he had a big game, and we still scored 9 without Arod. I think Cano has hurt the team, but not as much as Damon. When Cano gets hot we'll really start scoring runs, just like last year in the middle of the season till the end. As for Giambi, he's terrible. Last night he actually went the other way once for a homer but it'll probably not happen too many times.
Hmmm, this is an interesting question. I would have to go with Cano. Because of his position in the line-up and his ability to knock out hits (prior to this season, of course)the Yankees have suffered from his cold bat. In my my mind Giambi has always been that all-or-nothing type slugger, so I am not as surprised by his performance I guess. Damon has tradionally been less a less consistent hitter (in his Yankee career, that is) than Cano. I miss Cano's persistance at the plate. I hope he turns around soon.
p.s. Thanks for adding me to your site.
I think Damon's will hurt more in the long run of the season, but thus far Cano's at-bats have been more detriment to the team because he has come up and failed in a lot of big spots so far. He really needs to become a new type of hitter, his avg with the bases loaded is pathetic.
Thanks for the great comments guys,
the reason I asked the question because I really am having trouble deciding who has actually hurt more.
I think the Yankees are lacking scoring chances because of Damon, and that they haven't gotten a lot out of the opportunities they have had because of Giambi and Cano.
It's a tough call, I just hope they all start hitting ASAP.
All in all, its much better than our rally killing woes of last season... All of our lefties couldnt buy a hit in april, and how was our lineup situated?
Damon - struggle
Jeter - hitting
Abreu - struggle
Arod - Godlike
Matsui - stumbling
Posada - Uncanny
Giambi - benched
Cano - started slow as per usual
Melky - also slow to start.
That was every lefty in the order Torre strategically placed to throw off pitching, similar to this years lineup structure. Unfortunately, those leftys also strategically killed every rally we had potential of having.
This year Damon has turned it on a little earlier than usual, Cano will be Cano in April. But Hideki and Abreu have provided great sparks. Melky and our platoon of amazing backup catchers have also done their part as well. So that leaves our holes in 3 lefties (Damon, Giambi, and Cano) and Posada, whom we all knew wasnt going to repeat that .338 madness of last year.
Things are still on the up as far as out lineup is concerned. Tho Arod and Cano have to ease up on the first pitch popups.
Derek,
I agree that last year's offense had more holes at this point in the season, but last year thru 21 games the teams score 124 runs (5.9 per game) and this year they've only scored 94 (4.5 per game). So there might have been more holes last year, but the success of people like Posada and A-Rod did a good job of offsetting that.
Also Cano wasn't that bad last April, he hit .270.
But while they scored more runs, they also allowed more last year and had a record of 8-13 in their first 21 while they're 11-10 this year.
Matsui = Stumbling? That's a curious assessment.
jmiller,
I believe he was talking about last year.
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