The offseason for the New York Yankees wasn’t exactly A+ stuff. In fact, before the injury bug infected the clubhouse, the club arguably got worse during the winter. The departures of Nick Swisher and Russell Martin without any clear contingency plan, along with injuries to Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, and Curtis Granderson has cast doubt on whether this lineup can score the runs necessary to make a run at the playoffs.
With a 2-4 record after an impressive 7-0 win in Detroit to avoid the sweep, the Yankees are off to a slow start. They haven’t exactly lit up the scoreboard in the season’s first six games by averaging a mere four runs a game. Meanwhile, pitching and defense have given up more than five runs per contest. The Yankees brass have hid behind the mantra that speed, defense, and pitching were the keys to the team in the early-going, but the Bombers have been anything but those traits against the Boston Red Sox and Tigers.
Any educated baseball fan will tell you, the season is a marathon, not a sprint. The Yankees have stumbled out of the blocks, but it has happened before and they’ve still made the playoffs. I jotted down the record the Yankees accrued through the first 15 games since 2001 and then their final regular season record along with how their season ultimately ended. Here’s a chart for your reading pleasure:
It’s not often the Yankees start the season slowly. In fact, since 2001 they’ve had a losing record through the first 15 games only twice. Further, the team was 3-3 after the first six games in 2012 after being swept in Tampa to open the season. However, doesn’t this team feel different? In years past it felt like the team just needed a minute to prime the engine, before going 0-60 MPH in moment’s notice. However, now the team has all these new used parts that have some miles on them, while the parts the engine is more accustomed to is in the shop being worked on.
Players like Kevin Youkilis, Lyle Overbay, Vernon Wells, Travis Hafner, Ben Francisco, and Brennan Boesch all represent a certain element of unfamiliarity that keeps experts and fan alike from exuding a ton of confidence in the team. Each player named above has had success at various points in their careers, but there are reasons they have come to the Yankees through free agency, waivers, and trades.
According to Baseball-Reference, through the first five games this season the Yankees rank dead-last in the AL in ERA (6.49), hits (61), runs (33), and earned runs (31). Their hitting isn’t much better where they rank in the bottom three in the AL in hits, runs, and batting average. Add it all up and it’s not a recipe for success.
Saying that, CC Sabathia pitched a marvelous game yesterday in Detroit, which could very well kick off a good stretch for the Yanks. They’ll need it too, as they are fighting an uphill battle until their artillery comes back in May. That’s not to say that Teixeira and Granderson will make this team exponentially better, but it’ll at least give the club more firepower and lessen the pressure on the team’s pitching staff.
Stats courtesy of Baseball-Reference
Follow Jimmy Kraft on Twitter @jkra0512
