The Yanks are currently 22nd in the league with runners in scoring position, hitting just .251. With men on base they're hitting just .270. They're also consistently not getting runners in from 3rd with less than two outs. The most recent example coming in last night's first inning; Johnny Damon led off with a double and was bunted over to 3rd by Brett Gardner. But Damon remained at 3rd when Bobby Abreu popped out, and Alex Rodriguez grounded out. Another awful stat is there batting avg with the the bases loaded, a sad .228. These are things that winning teams do, and the Yankees are just not doing them.
On the other hand, the Minnesota Twins, who are now eight games over .500, are doing very well in these spots. With men on base they're hitting .294, they're first in the league with a .313 batting avg. with RISP, and they have a .401 avg. with a runner at 3rd and less than 2 outs. The Yankees are hitting .326 with a runner on 3rd and less than two out. And with the bases loaded the Twins are hitting .344, .116 points higher than the Yanks.
I think part of this is that the Twins are better prepared for these situations than the Yankees are, and I think it's because they actually practice them. During the Yanks-Mets game on Saturday Joe Buck was discussing the Twins success in these spots, and how they prepare for them during batting practice. While each guy is hitting someone else will yell out a situation: runners on 1st and 3rd with two out, get the runner in; runner on third with 1 out, get the runner in; man on 2nd nobody out, get the runner over; and the hitter will try to get the job done. Now this may not seem like much, but what this does is prepare the players mentally for certain situations. And the numbers certainly indicate that it's helping.
Would it be the worst thing in the world if the Yankees tried this? It's worth a shot, nothing else seems to be working.
Excellent article, Greg. You've hit the nail on the head. The Yankees' past success has been built on one or two big innings. They're not good at manufacturing runs. Why didn't Melky bunt last night? Because he can't. I seem to recall the same thing happening earlier in the season. Michael Kaye on the YES Network suggested he should go away and work on the problem. Clearly, this hasn't happened so we should be asking Joe Girardi and Kevin Long why not? It's a basic all batters should be capable of doing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bruce. Maybe Girardi is learning, he sat Melky for tonight's game, and it's about freaking time he did.
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