A record of 21-20, perfectly reflects the Yankees performance through the first quarter of the 2012 MLB season– average. There has been a few bright points in the early goings, but for the most part, those have been few and far between and have been mostly overshadowed by poor play from the star-studded roster, on top of plenty of bad breaks and misfortune for the team.
The Highs:
Derek Jeter is by far the best story for the Yankees this year. Soon to be 38-years-old, the captain looks like he’s in his prime, off to the best start of his career. Extremely hot from the start, Jeter ended April batting .389 with 4 home runs and 13 RBIs. Doubters didn’t think he’d be able to keep this pace and despite a slight drop in some of those stats, Jeter still has a .347 batting average with an on-base-percentage of .391. He’s really been the only one in the lineup who’s hit and gotten on base consistently for the club.
There’s been a few other unexpected, but welcome, surprises as well for the Yankees. Raul Ibanez was brought to the organization this offseason to add some depth to the outfield as well as provide some aid at the plate and he’s come up big in both ways. Due to injuries the Yankees have been light in the outfield at times and Raul has stepped in the spaces. With the bat though, he’s probably swung better than expected by anyone. He’s second on the team in both home runs, 9, and RBIs, 27, while batting .273. He’s even done this while taking quite a few less at-bats than the team-leaders in those categories.
After announcing his comeback in pinstripes, everyone has been waiting to see what Andy Pettitte would bring to the mound for the Yankees. He only made a few minor league starts which drew concern for Pettitte because in those couple outings, he hadn’t gone deep and it was said his velocity wasn’t really there. But desperate for help in the rotation, the Yankees handed the ball over to him on May 13, for his first start in 2012. Even though he got the loss that day, getting hurt by a few homers, he bounced back in his last performance. Against the Reds this past weekend, Pettitte pitched eight shutout innings, giving up just four hits along the way, and got the win for the Yankees. Can’t ask too much more from a an over 40 starter who hasn’t pitched a game in over a year. Everyone in Yankee nation surely hopes to see this continue, the team could definitely use the extra arm.
The Lows:
It’s hard to find a good place to start here, because the list can go on and on for the bad points so far. Consistency is something the Yankees have certainly lacked in all areas of the game. But anyone can admit that it can be difficult to find any kind of rhythm when injuries plague a team and it’s been as close to worst-case-scenario as it can be when it comes to this issue for the Yankees. The Yankees had 11 injuries through the entire 2011 season, about two months into 2012, they’ve already had eight. Those losses suffered have been extremely significant too. Before the season began, newly acquired pitcher, Michael Pineda, suffered an injury to his throwing arm which required surgery and knocked him out of the lineup for the season. Not long after, Joba Chamberlain broke his ankle in a non-baseball related incident and is out for the year. Perhaps the most significant and unexpected of all, was losing Mariano Rivera to a torn ACL suffered when he fell shagging pre-game fly balls in Kansas City. Many other nagging injuries have had players in and out of the lineup all year and the squad will need to stay healthy from this point on to try and get some team chemistry going.
The next biggest downfall for the Yankees, has been their lack of production at the plate. With a lineup full of sluggers, it’s been mostly slumps on display in the first quarter. Despite being tied for first in the league in home runs, those big flies have mostly been for not, as the bombers are having trouble coming through when there’s an opportunity to bring in base-runners. With runners in scoring position, the Yankees are 22nd in the MLB, batting a bleak .231. These sluggers have to break out soon and start providing the starting pitching with a little more run support.
Pitching hasn’t been the most reliable either. When the starters are on, they shut opponents down in dominant fashion. But when they make mistakes and start losing their command, leaving pitches out to hang for batters, they’ve paid in a big way. With all of these pitches left over the middle of the plate, hitters have taken advantage, blasting 43 total home runs off of Yankees starters this year. If they continue to give up all of these big flies, the pressure will stay mounted on the offense to keep up with the score.
Overall, the Yankees have yet to hit any real stride through the first quarter of the season. Their best win-streak of the year has only been four games and it seems like for every step they take forward, they follow with two or three more backwards. Sitting next to last in the AL East just one game ahead of the Red Sox, the Yankees are 5.5 games behind first. In order to make up any ground in the next quarter, the Yankees need to win a good 25-30 of the next 40 games if they want to pull closer or even ahead in the division before before the All-Star game rolls around.
