Jeter plays shortstop and bats second.

The Yankees made this decision 10 years ago, when a 'roided-up ARod was moved to third base.

With a month left on the Jeter Retirement Tour, nobody is going to mess with the captain now.

"Now some may ask, what’s the alternative at this point in the season?

We actually came up with one based on a simple premise: ranking the Yankees hitters by their August OPS.

That produces a lineup of Jacoby Ellsbury (CF), Martin Prado (RF), Carlos Beltran (DH), Mark Teixeira (1B), Chase Headley (3B), Brett Gardner (LF), Stephen Drew (2B) and Jeter (SS)."

Guess who I'm about to mention?

At this moment, the Yankee first baseman -- who goes by many nicknames -- Nails, Iron Horse, Solo HR, AL MVP, Foul Territory -- has an actual batting average of .226.

So bat Prado fourth and send Fatso to the bench.

Jeter is past his prime. He hits into too many double plays and always has. He doesn't walk enough perhaps, though he can still handle the bat, so to speak. He is also in a midst of a slump, which he'll probably break out of soon. You could have said the same thing about Ellsbury a week ago.

The problem with the Yankee offense?

It really isn't Jeter.

Ice cream sandwich diss.

Yankees scored more runs than a bowlful of puppies.

I'll admit that's a nonsense metaphor, but no worse than George King's:

"As one hit off David Price followed another and Yankees’ runners moved around bases like marbles set free in a bathtub, the architects understood how rare the scene was."

You're free, marbles.

Let's simplify your mission statement.

It doesn't look good, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt with the injuries. He seems like a man who isn't particularly committed to physical conditioning or proactively fighting the effects of aging or making sure he's always on the field. But you never know. Maybe he's a tough guy and his body is sending cautionary signals.

In any case, he overestimates his contributions when healthy:

" 'Physically, this has been a very difficult year for me,' Teixeira said. 'The only consolation I take is that when I am healthy and feeling good and can get a nice stretch of games, I’m still driving in runs and hitting home runs and that’s what I’m here for.' "

This is the problem right here.

He thinks his job is to hit home runs, and that's a complication. His job is to drive in runs.

If he scores 100 or so, that would be fine, too. Can't discourage walks.

Bu this fundamental misunderstanding is precisely how you end up with a cleanup hitter with 14 solo HRs and terrible RISP stats.


Also, if you project his stats for 700 plate appearances, it's, like, 35 HRs an 91 RBIs. Still nothing special for a cleanup hitter playing home games at Yankee Stadium.

Underachieving team, once again.

Good quote from their untouchable manager:

" 'When you look up and you’ve got as many errors as you’ve got hits, that’s not a good feeling,' manager Terry Collins said."

I'm hoping to jinx Mark Teixeira right now. Today, he hits three grand slams.

I also am aware that this blog is sort of turning into a two-trick pony -- anti-Lupica and anti-Teixeira.

But it's my blog and I'll do what I wanna do.

What do you want? A refund from a free blog?


By the way, I will not hassle Teixeira for his two walks in last night's game. It should be noted that Ellsbury was walked intentionally to get to Teixeira in the ninth with the winning run at second base. That's an embarrassment, even if Teixeira managed to get a walk. But I will definitely take a walk instead of an out.


The updates of my favorite stats in the whole wide world:

RISP: 22 hits in 96 at-bats (.229), 1 HR.
Two outs and RISP: 6 hits in 38 at-bats (.158), no HRs.

.233.

"In fact, maybe these Yanks would be better off getting clobbered by the lowly White Sox this weekend, having their fate fully defined and taking advantage of pitching needs with the Angels and Dodgers to see if they could trade McCarthy and/or Hiroki Kuroda (who has a no-trade clause, but retains a Southern California residence). The Yankees, though, have yet to try to put either righty through waivers and both would be questionable to get through. Plus, it remains highly doubtful Hal Steinbrenner will ever accept surrender, particularly as he tries to make Derek Jeter’s farewell more than a funeral dirge.

I don't quite see the point of giving up, even at this stage. I'd trade McCarthy "and/or" Kuroda in a heartbeat. I'd trade every player on the Yankees for every player on the Astros ... except for Jeter because there are some ceremonies coming up."

Who is the power-hitting OFer you're getting for Kuroda at this point?

I don't see how getting ripped off is a plan for the future.


"So they soldier on, hoping against logic that there is health and a best-is-still-to-come for Carlos Beltran, Brian McCann and Mark Teixeira. However, here might be the scariest thought as you watch the last quarter of this season: It may be Jeter’s end, but something still near the beginning of the Yankees offensive problems. They are into Beltran, McCann and Teixeira through at least 2016, the free-agent market is mostly devoid of hitting difference-makers and the farm system (sorry fans of Rob Refsnyder and Tyler Austin) is not close to delivering impact.

The Yankees offense just might be the problem that keeps on giving."

It is funny to me.

These three bums started yesterday's game with the exact same batting average: .233.

Can you imagine? .233. How do they get away with it? Why aren't they run out of town?

No speed, an occasional HR, low batting averages, low on-base percentages, and all the numbers get worse when you look at RISP/clutch splits.

It's ugly and it's obviously the biggest problem with the Yankees. The power hitters swinging from their heels, futilely, unwilling to take the RBI against the infield shift.

McCann squats down, straightens up, stops the toe tap, resumes the toe tap, swings as hard as he can, grounds out to second base. Maybe has hit 1 ball 400 foot all year. Cleared the bases with a double against KC one time to drive in three runs. Everyone watches as his batting average slips to .233 and he every at-bat is like watching a grown man bang his head against a wall.

Oh, and the team on-base% is .311.

I don't see how trading Kuroda "and/or" McCarthy will solve the problem, short-term or long-term. Maybe a few benchings would help, but I think it's too late for that.

The reason it's funny to me is because this might be the first column I've read which focused on the black holes batting 4 - 6 on this team. I don't know how they avoid scrutiny and ridicule.

#25 will probably not be retired by the Yankees, just sayin'.

After 5 strikeouts in a row, Mark Teixeira at least put the ball in Fair Territory (not Foul Territory ... get it?).

His batting average with two outs and runners in scoring position is now an impossible 6 hits in 37 at-bats.

That's .162.

You know the old joke about batting your weight?

How about batting your weight minus 100 pounds?

Or your annual salary divided by 100,000?

Written by a person who doesn't really follow baseball.

Mike Lupica describes what it's like to read a Mike Lupica column:

"I love people who don’t love or really follow baseball telling everybody else how they should fix everything they think is wrong with it."

I would absolutely listen to people who don't love baseball as they explain why they don't love baseball. Then, try to adjust the game to appeal to them.

Because baseball wants a future.

If baseball adjusts, it will not lose its core base of old, white Northeastern men.

Probably the at-bat of the year.

Top 8th, bases loaded, 2 outs, Yankees down 4-0.

Teixeira's grand slam ignited a big comeback win for the Yankees and energized the entire team as they cling to their slim playoff hopes.

Just joking.

He struck out looking.

RISP: 1 HR in 89 at-bats.

RISP and 2 outs: .171 batting average.

The greatness of Dellin Betances's season.

It's right up there with Mariano 1996. Relievers don't qualify for league leaders in WHIP, but Betances's WHIP is down to .736.

 
Mariano's WHIP in 1996 was .994.

Mariano's lifetime WHIP was (oddly enough) 1.000.

Mariano's best season WHIP was .665 in 2008.


PS - These stats change for the worse after Girardi sends Betances out there to attempt a third inning of relief.

Old white men.

Teixeira disappointed in Yankee offense.

Click on the link if you want to.

I am not self-actualized enough to trust myself to read the article in which Mark Teixeira expresses disappointment in the Yankee offense.

Spring Training 2015

My prediction is that Mark Teixeira will come to Spring Training next season and say he is in better physical shape and ready to go. He will try to avoid the nagging injuries.


Here are the latest stats:

2014 overall: 308 at-bats, .227 ba, 19 HRs.
2014 bases empty: 155 at-bats, .232 ba, 13 HRs.
2014 RISP: 87 at-bats, .253 ba, 1 HR.
2014 two outs RISP: 34 at-bats, .176 ba, 0 HR.

I could actually conduct a statistical analysis if I wanted to, come up with a mathematical interpretation whether this guy is unclutch or unlucky. The most likely conclusion is that the sample sizes are small and the deviations are statistical noise.

Either way, I don't know why the press and fans are letting this guy off the hook.

A HR every 16 at-bats when the bases are empty. A HR every 25 at-bats when runners are on base. A HR every 87 at-bats with RISP. One three-run HR the entire season and 0 grand slams.

What really gets me is the 2 outs RISP batting average. This clown won't take the RBI when the infield shift is on.

I think he's a head case.

If he did these things, then he deserves to go to jail.

There seems to be a lot of intentionally misleading confusion about what's going on here.

If ARod funded the operation, or was a co-owner, that's a lot different than being a customer:

"Rodriguez may become a target if investigators discover that he put up money for the drug ring’s operations, or if prosecutors believe they can prove that Rodriguez steered Major League Baseball players and other professional athletes to Biogenesis, the sources said. Sucart and another defendant, Juan Carlos Nunez, recruited pro athletes for the clinic, Ferrer said on Tuesday, telling them that Bosch was a doctor who could provide them with undetectable testosterone lozenges and syringes."

It's just speculation at this point? This seems to be nothing more than click bait.


"Rodriguez could also face obstruction, witness tampering or other charges. The MLB officials who presented evidence of Rodriguez’s doping history to arbitrator Fredric Horowitz in A-Rod’s battle to upend his drug suspension last year claimed that Rodriguez had purchased Biogenesis documents in order to destroy them or block investigators from obtaining them."

I am not a legal expert, but I know enough about obstruction of justice to know that it refers to obstructing the investigations of legal authorities.

MLB officials are simply not legal authorities.

You can lie to them all day -- morning, noon, and night -- and you can't go to jail for doing it. Maybe get fired, maybe get suspended, but that's a far cry from going to jail.


Now, my guess is that the obstruction charges would stem from the fact that ARod tried to hide the evidence. Duh.

"Not drugs. Food."

But we end up right back where we started. Thousands of players used, they all hid the evidence. Nobody went to jail.

I like the attitude of the new guys.

I sure as heck don't think they'll win the division.

Mike Lupica emerges from his baseball slumber to talk about Alex Rodriguez.

"All we heard last summer, in the run-up to an arbitration hearing that ended up with Major League Baseball effectively throwing Alex Rodriguez into the trunk of a car and driving him away from the sport, was what a witch hunt this all was. You read this constantly, heard it on the radio, and on television, as we were supposed to believe that Rodriguez and even the Biogenesis All-Stars who had taken their suspensions and were smart enough to shut up about them, were victims of everything except a vast right-wing conspiracy."

In this context, the term "witch hunt" means MLB pursued ARod with disproportionate vigor.

Which they did.

Obviously.


In fact, the more biogenesis folks who get arrested, the more it begs the question, "What took so long?" Why has this drug dealer evaded prosecution for so long?

The answer is, the drug dealer evaded prosecution so MLB could confirm ARod's PED use with the drug dealer's testimony, and then put in a good word for the drug dealer.


"And the idea that somebody like Rodriguez, who had a working relationship with Anthony Bosch of Biogenesis for years, is somehow free and clear now that Bosch has gotten himself arrested − and now that Bosch has entered into a plea agreement with the government − is just more noise from Rodriguez’s side of this thing. It means the same kind of noise we got last fall before he took his huge fall from Major League Baseball, when his strategy was to answer questions on the radio rather than in front of an arbitrator."

Fined $20-something million is not "free and clear."

I mean, in a way, I think it would be funny if ARod was prosecuted by the Feds. They missed thousands of ballplayers, but got ARod.

Hmmm ... the phrase that comes to mind is "witch hunt."


"No, he said on the radio, he wasn’t guilty of any of the charges leveled against him. No, he’d never done anything wrong. No, he’d never used PEDs. No, he had never obstructed justice. No, no, no. He denied until the end, and then this innocent, falsely accused man took a suspension that took him out of baseball for a year.

Now he better hope that the government doesn’t have evidence that contradicts his radio testimony about never having obstructed justice. If he was lying about that, being in a world of trouble with Bud Selig will be the least of his problems."

He was lying on Mike Francesa's radio show. He was not under oath.

If lying on a sports radio show is a crime, then maybe Mike Lupica deserves life in prison for telling us Josh Satin was going to be a .300 hitter.


As far as I know, ARod has not lied to a Federal agent. MLB goons don't count and neither does Mike Francesa.

He cheated, he lied, he tried to evade detection, he got 200 games.

Everyone else who cheated, lied, and tried to evade detection got 50 games.

I'm glad they got Bosch, but ...

... why did he cooperate with MLB in the first place?

Maybe he just wanted to be famous.

Teixeira scratched due to light-headedness.

All of these injuries may be legit, to be fair. It doesn't seem that way. It sure seems like he's soft. I'm not his doctor and I remember J.R. Richard.

Foul Territory's Updated RISP Stats

This stuff truly is amazing if you think about it. I am surprised that this is occurring right in front of us everyday and it goes un-reported.


These numbers are up-to-the-minute, after this afternoon's first-inning failure with 2 outs and RISP:

RISP: 82 at-bats, .256 BA, 1 HR.

RISP two outs: 31 at-bats, .194 BA, 0 HR.


The king of the meaningless solo HR ... and, therefore, the prototype for the 2014 Yankees.

Just bench him and put Prado and first base/cleanup hitter for a couple of weeks. Prado will hit fewer solo HRs, probably, but he'd also probably be a superior overall player.


Third inning foul territory RISP no RBI update

• Martín Prado walked
• Francisco Cervelli walked, Martín Prado to second
• Brett Gardner walked, Martín Prado to third, Francisco Cervelli to second
• Derek Jeter doubled to shallow right, Martín Prado and Francisco Cervelli scored, Brett Gardner to third
• Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out to second, Brett Gardner scored, Derek Jeter to third
• Mark Teixeira grounded out to second

Stats you (probably) won't find anywhere else ...

2014 Brian Roberts: 317 AB, 75 H, 16 2B, 4 3B, 5 HR, .237 BA, .300 OB%, .360 SL%.

2014 Yankees with RISP and 2 outs: 412 AB, 86 H, 17 2B, 1 3B, 6 HR, .209 BA, .296 OB%, .299 SL%.


The only solution is to DFA the whole team.


Actually, I have a potential fix:

Any batter who is 4-5-6 in the batting order who is batting with runners in scoring position and two outs and the opposing infield is in a shift?

• First time you hit a ground ball into the shift rather than take the RBI, you are taken out of the game.
• Second time, you are fined $1 million.
• Third time, you are cut from the team.

Brian Cashman's team is 55-53.

I am waiting for Mark Feinsand to bash Brian Cashman. I hope I don't have to wait a long time:

"If you’re waiting for me to bash Brian Cashman, you’re going to be waiting a while. The general manager did what he could to improve the team at the deadline, but the two biggest names on the market — David Price and Jon Lester — weren’t available to the Yankees, and the Phillies wanted a big haul for Marlon Byrd, who was probably the best outfielder available.

Besides, if Cashman had traded a top prospect for Byrd, would the Yankees then look like a playoff team? I don’t think so."

I don't believe Cashman is getting much grief for his mostly pointless deadline deals. It's kind of the rest of the team that's the problem.

The Yankees are 55-53 this year and have been outscored by 31 runs. The 2/3rds mark of the 2014 season.

Last year, the Yankees were 85-77 and outscored by 21 runs.

Why would anyone believe this team is suddenly going to play .600 ball in the remaining 1/3rd of the 2014 season? Even if they do, that gets them to 87 wins.


"The addition of Martin Prado and Stephen Drew made the Yankees marginally better, but it’s hard to think it was enough to get them to the next level. The moves that were supposed to get them there were the offseason additions of Jacoby Ellsbury, Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran, but the lineup simply hasn’t clicked for any period of time during the season."

So you're bashing Brian Cashman for his offseason additions.


It's also kind of sad to review the current contributions of the big 2008 offseason additions. Sabathia is on the DL and seemingly washed up; Teixeira with his massive 50 RBIs; also paying A.J. Burnett to pitch for another team.

I remember how they won the World Series in 2009. I was there. However, this is what happens when a lot of players are past their prime.


"Long believes the additions of Prado, Drew and Chase Headley lengthen the lineup, giving the Yankees a chance to do a little more damage than they were with Brian Roberts, Ichiro Suzuki and whatever third baseman they were throwing out there. But a couple moments Friday night made Long wonder whether the baseball gods were telling the Yankees this just isn’t their year.

'It feels like something’s not meant to be,' Long said, referring to Mookie Betts’ amazing running catch on what would have been a triple for Ellsbury in the eighth, and Brett Gardner’s scorching line drive in the fifth that resulted in a double play."

I feel the need to say something about those "bad luck" plays:

1) Gardner's line drive double play was not bad luck, it was bad baseball. With the runner in motion, you hit a ground ball. If this team descends into whining about "almost hits" (aka "outs), then I might just go over the edge.

2) Ellsbury was robbed of a triple. A truly spectacular catch at a key moment.

Let's say it was a triple. I can state with near certainty that Ellsbury gets stranded at third. I know that Teixeira followed with a bloop double, but I've seen this particular close-and-late-RISP script a few too many times.

Furthermore, let's say Ellsbury scores nice and tidy-like. Let's even suppose the Yankees get out of the bottom of the ninth with a tie. I can also state with near certainty that the Yankees will eventually lose the game. The Red Sox bullpen probably wouldn't even allow a baserunner.


Preado, Drew, Headley I suppose will make the Yankees a little better (though Drew seems like the only starting player in baseball who was actually worse than Brian Roberts). Prado strikes me as the perfect player to add to the 2011 Yankees, who were all HR-happy DHs.

The criticism of Cashman is that he's putting band-aids on a patient that needs major surgery.

So the deadline moves are boring and unsatisfying. The fans go to the games to see Jeter, but can't recognize the other starting players on the team.

It isn't good. It is OK to criticize Cashman. He is the General Manager.