Things Begin to Unravel

Things are pretty bad in the Yankee Universe right now. The team is losing. Competitive games are few and far between and now Jorge Posada is upset at the Yankees lack of faith in his .165 batting average and .621 OPS.

We'll start with Jorge first. It's easy to understand why Posada would have trouble adjusting from catching every game to just taking his four hacks a day, it's hard to understand why he would think the Yankees are in the wrong for handling his situation as they have.

It must be difficult for every aging veteran to look at young players doing what they used to be able to do and thinking that they still have the ability, but the fact of the matter is Jorge never had the defensive ability that Russell Martin has and the Yankees are clearly a better team with Martin as a receiver than Posada. And the fact of the matter is that Jorge can't hit then Jesus Montero is sitting in Scranton. Montero is unlikely to complain about batting ninth either.

It's a shame that things are going poorly for Posada. But when you hold out for the money and the years that he did after his fantastic 2007 season, you run the risk of embarrassing yourself at the tail end of the contract and your career. Posada will be 40 in August. New York is unlikely to bring him back after the year. Young cheaper players are waiting in the wings and older slower players are waiting for the DH spot in the Yankee lineup. It is tough to watch someone who was great for so long struggle at the end, but it's worse to watch him whining about the unfairness of the situation.

I'm sick of players and the media whining about teams owing players things. All the team owes them are the ridiculous salaries they get paid, especially in the case of aging Yankees. The deal is the get paid and then they play. That's what the two sides owe each other.

As for the rest of the Yankees, things don't look good and it's not for the reasons everyone was anticipating at the beginning of the season. The pitching has been good. Except for Rafael Soriano, the bullpen has been as strong as anticipated. The starting rotation has been far better than anyone could have reasonable expected. It is the hitting that has been a grand disappointment.

While the home runs have come as expected, the Yankees seem to lack the ability to hit with runners in scoring position. For a team that has the scored on average more runs than any other in baseball, they haven't done so lately. It has been almost a week since they have cracked the 5+ run barrier. And if you eliminate that Sunday affair in Texas, they haven't put up more than five runs in a game since April 29.

This extended dry spell has made me feel like I'm back in 2008 when the Yankees also had major inconsistencies at the plate. Maybe the whole Posada affair will give the Yankees an open door to make a tough decision and bring up Jesus Montero. It definitely feels like the Yankees will need some kind of spark to get this ship moving in the right direction. Right now it doesn't seem like that catalyst is on the Yankee roster.

Baseball is Back!

Yesterday we got our first taste of baseball since last November, and boy was it awesome. Some people ignore Spring Training and will only tune in once the real season starts, but to for me those games in February and March are what keep me going through the clean up from another wet and nasty winter thaw.

The Yankees fell to the Phillies 5-4 yesterday in a game that didn't see a ton of runs until the later innings. Early on the Yankee pitchers seemed solid. Joba Chamberlain threw a crisp clean inning where he displayed slightly new mechanics. Joba now starts his hands closer to his waist which gets his hands over the rubber sooner. The adjustment seemed to really change his approach and hopefully it leads to more consistent appearances throughout the season.

The young righty was plagued by massive late-inning blow ups during the first half of regular season last year, leading to a bloated ERA. If Joba can be what he was as a reliever in early 2008 or even the second half last season when he posted an ERA of 2.88 and a BB/K ratio of 4.63 then the Yankee bullpen has the potential to be a force of nature.

The other pitcher I was impressed with was Bartolo Colon. Crazy right? I should say I wasn't impressed so much as I was surprised his shins didn't give out under his ample frame. Also that he was able to touch the mid-90s with his fast ball in his second inning of work. That's really all Colon ever had, a power fastball, an average slider and an average change up. But if the Yankees can get 10 starts out of him, with him pitching to roughly his career numbers, then Brian Cashman's gamble will have reaped a decent reward.

The position players all did ok, A-Rod hit the ball with authority, everyone got excited because Mark Teixeira got a hit before May. Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson looked like they need a couple dozen more at bats before they will find their strokes, and honestly, Derek Jeter's 2011 swing didn't look a whole lot better than last year's version. Time will tell on that and I'm going to hold out hope that he can at least have a mild rebound from last year.

Today's game will give us a taste of the prospects. Ivan Nova will start for New York, and he will be throwing to the #3 prospect in all of baseball according to Baseball America: Jesus Montero. I was robbed of the chance to see him pitch when he was at Trenton back in 2009 and broke his wrist a week before the Thunder rolled through my backyard to play the New Britain Rock Cats.

Everyone will be critiquing his receiving skills, and I will be paying attention to that as well, but I can't wait to see him swing the stick. It should be fun to watch. BA's #43 prospect Dellin Betances will also be taking the mound today. He is one massive individual with a big fastball and a hammer curve. It should be fun.

Moving On...

I might linger more on 2010 if I thought this Yankee squad was truly good enough to win the World Series, but honestly they haven't played like a World Series contender for the better parts of three months. They had the talent, but they just never seemed to have the same pitching as last year.

A.J. Burnett was a shell of his 2009 self and despite the arrival of Phil Hughes, the rotation was never as stable as it was last year.

Changes will be coming to the Yankees this off season as they do for every team. With the regime they have though, New York will avoid any kind of over reaction to six games in October. Really there is no need for drastic changes anyway, also, you really couldn't even if you wanted to.

With that in mind and a lack of desire from myself to rehash everything Cliff Lee, let's look at the Yankees position players for next season.

The starting eight are pretty much locked in. Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Mark Teixeira are locked up for the foreseeable future in the infield. And you know that Derek Jeter will be back as well.

The outfield is also locked up and, unlike the infield, all three are locked into affordable contracts for the next few seasons. Brett Gardner, Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher all provide valuable offensive production and above-average defense at two of three positions.

The biggest questions for the Yankees and their position players is catcher and DH. Nick Johnson will be given his pay check and told to move along and Lance Berkman was never intended to be a solution beyond this season. Marcus Thames will return and rightly so considering he wont get much of a pay bump and he will remain in a limited roll as a right-handed power bat off the bench.

Catcher is really where the debate begins. Jorge Posada has one year left on his deal and the Yanks will also have the option of bringing back Fransisco Cervelli as the back up. Posada's defense continued to regress and Cervelli received way more at bats than he had a right to. There is a solution to the Posada/Cervelli problem waiting in the minors in the form of man-child Jesus Montero. The 20-year-old destroyed Triple-A pitching in the second half of the season and will rank as a top five prospect in all of baseball.

While Montero's bat will pair well within the frame of a Posada-Montero DH/Catcher platoon, his defense will not remind anyone of a young Johnny Bench, but the Yankees have survived a long time without a good defensive catcher and it stands to reason they wont mind Montero back there if they can put up with Posada.

We could see a Yankee squad with three catchers for a period of time if the Yankees desire to keep someone on hand for the occasional bumps and bruises that might force a catcher from the game and result in the loss of the DH.

Of course everyone knows the Yankees will hit and with the arrival of Montero they may even hit more. The lineup will again be a tremendous strength for the Yankees in 2011.

A Look at the Future After Jorge

Jorge Posada will be coming off the disabled list tonight the Yankees will get another big piece of the puzzle back into their lineup. But how long he stays there depends on if his aging body can continue to take the riggers of everyday catching.

And I think the answer to that question is a resounding no. Posada is on his way out and everyone can clearly see it. He might have another year behind the plate but in all likelihood he wont be the full time catcher beyond next season.

So that begs the question who will replace him in? Francisco Cervelli is a nice player and could be a decent backup next season and for his career, but he doesn't have the stick for a full-time gig. Kevin Cash is, well, Kevin Cash and there isn't much at Triple-A or even Double-A for that matter.

Where the Yanks are stacked is Single-A Tampa. Down there the future looks bright for the Yankees with two catchers who could feasibly take on the starting job for the Yankees by mid-2011: Jesus Montero and Austin Romine.

Montero is who the Yankees go to sleep dreaming about. The kid is a beast. At 6'4 225 he has the body to mash with the bat and it shows. At Tampa in the Florida State League Montero is tied for fourth in batting average, second in slugging percentage and first in total bases. It is abundantly evident that he can hit and scouts agree that his bat is the indisputable aspect of his game. Its his fielding that comes into question. Most think he will eventually have to move from behind the plate (where he would go now that Teixeira is at first for the foreseeable future who knows) because of his lack of mobility behind the plate.





But that's something I don't think the Yankees will ever seriously consider moving him from behind the dish. The bat plays up big time at catcher and the reality is you can live with substandard defense behind the plate if that catcher is jacking the ball out 35 times a season just look at Mike Piazza, Victor Martinez and, of course, Posada.

Now Austin Romine is a bit of a different story. He is more of a complete package. He is better behind the plate, but he is obviously not the same kind of bat as Montero though, he isn't an empty batter's box. He is capable with the stick though his BB:K (5:27) doesn't give a lot of faith in his eye at the plate. What helps the lack of walks is he is a doubles machine, hitting 13 in 161 at bats. Scouts aren't down on Romine, they just aren't as high on the second round pick from 2007, but he could become a solid regular at the big league level.

Obviously both of these guys are a long ways away from being in a position to help the Yankees and a lot can happen along the way. For now though, the Yanks have some options coming up the line.

BA Top 100 Released

Baseball America released their Top 100 prospect list for the 2009 season and both the Yankees and the Red Sox have three members among the 100 best in the minors.

Sox first baseman Lars Anderson ranks the highest among both the Yankees and the Red Sox minor leaguers coming in at number 17 but it's a long drop to the next Sox prospect, Michael Bowden, who comes in and number 83 and then Daniel Bard at number 98.

The three Yankees on the list are Austin Jackson and Jesus Montero at 36 and 38 respectively and Andrew Brackman who moved up eight spots from last season to 92 on this year's list.

I think those rankings are pretty fair for all the talent involved though, I think Montero ends up getting a raw deal because nobody ever expects him to still be a catcher by the time he makes it to the bigs. That assumption usually costs him a few spots on everyone's prospect list but his bat is huge if he stays behind the plate. Mike Piazza huge.

Most of the top 100 stuff is free on the Baseball America site, so if you're into following the young guys at all then you should definitely check it out.