Here come the Yankees.
Winners of six in a row the Bronx Bombers are finally starting to play baseball. Actually they are finally taking care of business against teams they should beat.
However, the Yankees six-game winning streak is not that impressive. New York stole three games on the road at Chicago versus the White Sox, who were hovering around the .500 mark. Then they pounded on a struggling Pittsburgh team at home over the weekend.
Two weeks ago, baseball analysts had the Yankees dead in the water. Now that Roger Clemens is back, you can bet that the same analysts will be backtracking on their earlier proclamations.
Clemens pitching line Saturday looked like this: 6 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 7 strikeouts and 2 walks. While it looks good on paper the reality is that Clemens faced a Pirates offense that is ranked 13th or lower in the NL in every major batting statistic.
Pitching has been the main problem for the Yankees and Saturday's start showed that the Rocket is not completely out of gas. Judgement should be reserved until Clemens makes at least one if not two more starts. His second start will most likely against the New York Mets this Friday.
As we near mid-June, if Clemens cannot pitch consistently and bring some stability to the Yankees rotation, the rest of the pitching staff goes with him. New York is desperate for quality pitching and will have to pay a serious price if try to trade for anyone down the strectch.
The Yankees have a favorable June schedule finishing the month at Colorado and San Francisco (both sub .500 teams). But the next six games against the Diamondbacks and the Mets will show whether or not we can finally take the Yankees seriously.
Right now, their 9-14 April record continues to overshadow everything.
1 comment:
I have to say that I'm shocked you'd even write something about the Yankees in the first place, but quite happy that you bashed them and the supposed return of the saintly hall-of-famer Roger Clemens. Yes, Roger is a maniac. Yes, he got a win in his first start with the team. But let's remember here, that start was deliberately delayed so that he could continue rehabbing a groin injury. Let's just call it convenient that he's suddently ready to pitch against the "lowly" Pirates, not to mention that a first outing bust for The Rocket would've made the already reeling Yankees organization look even stupider than it already is. Boo Yankees. I think Roger Clemens might be one of the best, if not most consistent, pitchers baseball has ever seen. Leave it to the Yankees to taint that image by bringing back Roger from pseudo retirement to rescue their over paid, over hyped, and over analyzed club. I can hear the phones in Lakerland now, "MJ, is it too late to come back and play for us? Big Nicholson thinks you'd make a very GlobeTrotter-esque addition to our team..." There's no doubt Jordan would be on a rehab assignment (perhaps playing for the White Sox?) until the game date with the Memphis came along...
Post a Comment