A Look Back At 2008: Alex Rodriguez

It's been a while since I've posted a "look back" on 2008. Been busy and with the lack of Yankee news I haven't been motivated to do it. I also need to find a way to shorten the posts up as in my opinion they get a little lengthy. Having said that, here's my 2008 look back on Alex Rodriguez.

Statistically speaking, A-Rod had another rock solid year. He hit 302, went yard 35 times, knocked in 103 and scored 104 runs. Most guys would kill to have seasons like that. and it's hard to say that a guy that performed that well had a bad year. But that's just what I'm going to do. Calling Alex's year a "bad year" may be a little much, but he definitely underperformed and fell short on expectations. For starters, he was pretty far from clutch, hitting only 271 with RISP. His OPS with RISP was 274 points below what it was in 2007 and 73 points below his total from 2006. Plain and simple, Alex didn't come through when it was needed most. Considering his salary, his position in the lineup, and the general baseball awesomeness that is A-Rod, it was definitely well below expectations. A couple of clutch hits here and there and maybe the Yankees would have kept their streak of postseason baseball alive.

Another huge problem with A-Rod this year was the # of double plays he grounded in to. In th month of August alone, he hit into 11. Considering his season total was 16, that's pretty bad. the Yanks win-loss record in August was 13-15. A lot of that in my opinion had to do with A-Rod's struggles. Again, had he played up to his normal standard, the Yanks very well could have played October baseball.

One bright spot for Alex in 2008 was that he had tied for the best fielding percentage (.970) in the AL at his position. He improved slightly on his 2007 fielding percentage (.965) and greatly improved on his dead-last in the AL 2006 fielding percentage (.937). Could a 2008 Gold Glove be in Alex's future? I'm going to guess it will be Mike Lowell but we'll see.

Taking everything into account, J-Boogie's final 2008 grade for Alex is a C. He had a solid year at the plate but didn't really help the greater good when I look at the big picture and put his season into context. He's capable of more, a lot more.

If you want to check out any of the previous 2008 look backs, click on this link "2008 Look Back." It'll take you to my previous look back posts. Next up: Bobby Abreu

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Derek Jeter

It's October and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball this month. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's look back at 2008 is Derek Jeter.

It was a down year for the Yankee Captain. He put up respectable numbers but it wasn't one of his best offensive campaigns. He ended up hitting 300 on the nose, about 16 points below his career average. His numbers declined across the board for the 2nd straight year. His average dipped from 344 in 2006, to 322 in '07, to 300 in '08. His OBP dropped from 417 ('06) to 388 ('07) to 363 ('08). His SLG dropped from 483 ('06) to 452 ('07) to 408 ('08). Not his best year, but like I said, respectable. You can actually make a case that he had the best year statistically of all AL shortstops. His 300 average was 16 points ahead of the second highest avg for AL shortstops. His OBP was 22 points higher. He ranked 2nd in SLG, 65 points behind the Indians' Jhonny Peralta. Again, like I said, a respectable year. Just not quite what we're used to from DJ. A lot of people were bitching and moaning about Jeter's selection as a starter for the AL All-star team. For my money, the fans got it right.

The highlight of Derek's season had to be passing Lou Gehrig for the most career hits in Yankee Stadium. With the Stadium closing down, it's a record that will never be broken. He entered the final 10 game homestand needing 9 hits to tie Gehrig's record and he knocked those hits out in 3 games. DJ was the man in the final few weeks of the season. He got the average up to 306 before getting plunked on the hand, which was a reason for the dip to 300.

The one negative that I have to knock Jeter for this season is with how he handled his role as Captain. The Yankees floundered for much of the season and I don't recall hearing anything about Jeter laying into the guys to get them to step it up. There are quite a few guys that you could tell were phoning it in. As Captain, I'd like to think that Jeter was trying to ignite a spark under the team, but again, didn't hear about it. Derek Jeter has done nothing but win since he became a Yankee and this is the 1st time in his career that he's sitting at home for the entire month of October. I'd like to think he would have done a little more as captain to try to ensure the team was giving it their all day in and day out. I know that's technically Girardi's job, but with the transition from Torre to Girardi, I think DJ needed to step up a little more and take the lead or at least help Girardi out. But again, maybe he did, or tried to anyway.

Taking everything into account, J-Boogie's 2008 final grade for Derek Jeter is a B. I was going to make it a B- but he signed an autograph for me in Toronto so I bumped him up. Feel free to post your own grades or comments.

If you want to check out any of the previous 2008 look backs, click on this link "2008 Look Back." It'll take you to my previous look back posts. Next up: Alex Rodriguez

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Robinson Cano

It's October and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball this month. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's look back at 2008 is Robinson Cano.

Talk about a letdown. I was expecting so much more from Robinson Cano last season. After a hot spring start, I thought this might be the year where Cano got away from another slow start. As well all know that didn't happen. In fact, it was the worst start to his short career. It took Robbie 40 games to crack the 200 mark. 40 games! That's a-quarter of the season. I wouldn't expect that from a career 300 hitter. He improved as the year went on, hitting .287 in June, .327 in July, .290 in August, and .287 in September. He finished with an average of .271, more than 30 percentage points below his career average. Coming into 2008, Cano was thought of to be one the better offensive second sackers in the league. Many compared him to HOFer Rod Carew. The Yanks thought so high of Robbie that they signed him to a multi-year deal last off-season. Now he can't escape being thrown into trade rumors. My how his stock has fallen. Second base is typically a weaker position offensively. Cano was statistically one of the best 2Bs in the league in '06 and '07. In 2008 he was one of the worst. In 2007, Robbie had 61 multi-hit games and the Yankees won 44 of them (.721). In 2008, Robbie had 45 multi-hit games and the Yankees won 34 of them (.756). If Robbie's numbers were on par with last year's when he hit .306, the Yankees would likely still be playing ball right now.

I think one of the biggest problems facing Cano is his lack of drive. It was widely known that Larry Bowa had to stay on top of Cano to keep him from being lazy. While most of Cano's laziness falls directly on his own shoulders, some of the blame fals on the shoulders of Joe Girardi. Girardi knew before the season started that Robbie needed a little extra attention. He didn't really give him any until there were 13 or so games left in the season. Basically when the season was pretty much over and done with. Girardi should have known that Cano needed that little extra push and he failed him by waiting so long to bench him. But again most of the blame is on Cano. He's a major league baseball player, not a 10 year old. He should be able to get himself up for the job every day.

It was definitely a down year for Cano. He definitely didn't live up to expectations. I thought by year's end we'd see Cano finish with an average close to 300. That never materialized. Cano's performance was another in a long line of disappointing 2008s. I really hope the Yankees haven't given up on Robbie because I think he's capable of greatness. I wouldn't think Girardi would wait so long next time to kick him in the rump. It is after all Girardi's job to get the best from his team and he definitely didn't do that with Robbie last year. J-Boogie's 2008 final grade for Robbie Cano is a D. Feel free to post your own grades or comments.

If you want to check out any of the previous 2008 look backs, click on this link "2008 Look Back." It'll take you to my previous look back posts. Next up: Derek Jeter

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Jason Gaimbi

It's October and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball this month. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's look back at 2008 is Jason Giambi.

Several times throughout last season I heard people, mainly the YES crew, remark that Jason Giambi was having a good year. Sure he had his moments but for the most part, Giambi's season, much like all of his previous seasons in Pinstripes, didn't meet my expectations. Giambi was the man in Oakland. In New York, not so much. He had a great year his 1st year in Pinstripes, hitting .314 with 41 bombs and 122 RBI. Since then his average has never topped .271. His lowest average in 6 full years in Oakland was .291. His career numbers, which are benefited by the great years he had in Oakland are .286 with an .408 OBP and a SLG % of .942. Giambi's 2008 #s were all below his career average.

Giambi finished the year hitting .247 (13 points below his career avg in NY) with an OBP of .373 and a SLG % of .502. I don't remember if teams put the shift, or the "martini glass defense" as Michael Kay stupidly calls it, on Giambi in Oakland. His #s have definitely taken a hit because of the shift. My favorite Giambi moment of the year was when he singled through the shift against Baltimore and the YES cameras caught him flipping off someone on the O's defense, my guess being Brian Roberts or the RF. Giambi was able to 32 HR and knocked in 96 RBI. Not bad but I'd expect better considering the guys that hit in front of him and the fact that the stadium is built for LH power hitters. Giambi only hit .213 (32-150) with an OPS of .692 when runners were in scoring position. In his last "full" season, which was 2006, with RISP the Big G hit .271 (36-133) with an OPS of 1.147. Giambi's numbers with RISP were definitely lacking and his performance was one of the many that resulted in the Yankees scoring 179 fewer runs than they did in 2007. Had the Yankees scored those runs, I likely wouldn't be writing these look backs yet.

In the field, Giambi as expected was atrocious. His fielding percentage was .990 which ranks him 10th out of 11 for all qualifying AL first basemen. The lowest in the league was .988. Giambi's glove/arm has never been his strong suit. Any time he has to make a throw is an adventure. It seemed like every time he had to make a throw to 2nd he botched it, looking awkward in the process. It would have been nice to DH him more but Giambi for some reason performs better at the plate when he plays the field. The Yanks also really had no room for him to DH with having an extra OF most of the year.

Giambi's contract is up if the Yanks don't exercise the team option on him. If they pick him up his 2009 salary would be about $22 million. The Yankees can buy it out for $5 million. I like the Big G and all. He's one of the nicest guys in the game. But the Yanks are better off buying him out for $5 million and using what's left over to pick up someone else. You can get a lot for $17 million. I'm not sure what's available but one would think you could find a guy to put up those same numbers, if not better, for $17 million or less. I'd roll that $ into a contract for Mark Teixeira myself. It's ultimately Cash's call. Hope he makes the right one and cuts Giambi loose.

Jason's overall season was pretty much par for the course. I've always expected him to do better than he does and he always comes in about the same. His numbers with RISP definitely hurt the team. J-Boogie's 2008 final grade for Jason Giambi is a C-. Feel free to post your own grades or comments.

If you want to check out any of the previous 2008 look backs, click on this link "2008 Look Back." It'll take you to my previous look back posts. Next up: Robbie Cano

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Jose Molina

It's October and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball this month. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's look back at 2008 is Jose Molina.

Jose Mo will forever be known as the last person to hit a home run in Yankee Stadium. Wow. I don't think anyone would have predicted that considering he isn't exactly Babe Ruth at the plate. But Jose is not on the Yankees because of what he brings to the table offensively. It's what he does behind the plate that makes him so valuable.

For a while at the beginning of the season it looked like Jose was going to be an offensive machine. Through his first 10 games he was hitting .364 with 7 double and an OPS of .939. If my memory serves me correctly, at that time he was tied for the league lead in doubles. But then he quickly realized that he was Jose Molina and his numbers quickly dropped off. Jose finished the season with a .216 average, hitting 17 doubles and 3 HRs, knocking in 18 RBI. His numbers were a little below his career average but were in the ballpark. Jose is a career .237 hitter. For all intents and purposes, he performed as expected at the plate. Again, he's not Babe Ruth. He's Jose Molina. You don't expect the world from him at the plate.

Defensively, you have to love what Jose brings to the Yankees. Jose's ERA as a catcher was 3.69. There were 4 catchers in MLB that caught more innings than Jose who had better ERAs, 3 of which were by .06 percentage points or less. The Yankees team ERA was 4.28, more than half a percentage point higher than Molina's. I know a lot of it has to do with the guy on the mound executing his pitch, but it's the catcher that calls the what and where. You've got to give Jose some credit. Mike Mussina has said many times he loves the way Molina calls a game. I believe he's gone as far as saying he was one of the best catchers he's ever thrown to. Considering Moose is on his way to the HOF, that's saying a lot. Is it a coincidence that Moose won 20 games for the first time in his career with Molina as his catcher? I think not. Molina definitely had something to do with Moose's success.

Molina's greatest asset though is his arm. Molina gunned down 44% of the runners who attempted to steal. He allowed 42 steals in 75 attempts. That was the highest in all of MLB for catchers who had more than 25 stolen bases attempted on them. The Yankees don't exactly have the best pitchers on the mound when it comes to holding on runners. Having a guy like Molina behind the plate neutralizes that threat. And when you've got teams with speed in your division like the Rays and Red Sox, you need all the help you can get keeping those runners from taking extra bases and getting into scoring position. Stealing on Posada has pretty much become a given, or as close to is as can be. Posada allowed 34 swipes in 41 attempts, catching 17.1% of runners. Yankee catchers not named Jose Molina caught 24.46% of runners. As a team the Yankees caught 32.7% of runners. I hate to think what that statistic would be if Jose wasn't the backup catcher . I wish I could easily calculate how many runs he saved and how many extra wins his arm got us. He came up big defensively for the Yanks in '08.

As I mentioned above, Jose isn't on the team for what he does at the plate. He pretty much performed as expected. Defensively, that's a different story. He definitely exceeded my expectations and filled in for Jorge Posada better than I could have ever expected. J-Boogie's 2008 final grade for Jose Molina is a B+. Feel free to post your own grades or comments.

If you want to check out any of the previous 2008 look backs, click on this link "2008 Look Back." It'll take you to my previous look back posts. Next up: The Giambino, Jason Giambi

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Jorge Posada

It's October and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball this month. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's look back at 2008 is Jorge Posada.

Jorge missed about 2/3 of the year with a bum right shoulder. The Yankees definitely felt the impact of not having Jorge in the lineup on a daily basis. It's very difficult to replace a catcher who hits as well as Jorge. In 2007, Jorgie had an outstanding year, hitting .338 and driving in 90 runs. You can't replace that. The loss of Jorge's production was one of the biggest reasons why the Yankees scored 179 runs less this year than they did in 2007.

Jorge appeared in 51 games, hitting .268 and driving in only 22 runs. His numbers were well below his numbers from 2007 and were also lower than his career averages. It's hard to say how much his shoulder problems had to do with his subpar performance. One thing the bum shoulder did affect was his ability to throw out base-stealers. Jorge allowed 34 stolen bases in 41 attempts, meaning he threw out runners only 17.1% of the time, which would have been the lowest caught stealing percentage in the league for all catchers that qualified. His CS % dropped from 37.3% in 2006 to 23.9% in 2007, to 17.1% in 2008. Jorge's arm has been a growing concern in recent years and with the Rays and Red Sox fielding lineups with lots of speed, the Yankees really need to take a look at other options for catcher.

Overall it was a pretty disappointing year for Posada. As I mentioned above, it's hard to measure the impact that his shoulder trouble had on his performance. Had he been healthy all year, I wouldn't have expected the digression in his numbers that we saw. I can only assume that his injury had a lot to do with his subpar performance.

Taking everything into account, I can only really give Jorge a grade of incomplete. It's hard to say what he would have done had he been healthy. Feel free to let me know what you think or how you would have graded Jorge's 2008 season.

If you want to check out my last 2008 look back, it was on Joe Girardi. Next up: Jose Molina

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie

A Look Back At 2008: Joe Girardi

Tomorrow is October 1st and for the first time in 13 years the Yankees won't be playing baseball in October. It was a disappointing season to say the least. Over the next few weeks, I'm going to be taking a look back at the individuals that took part in the 2008 Yankees campaign, offering up some opinions and assigning each person a grade. I hope to do at least one person a day so make sure to check back. And please feel free to add your own thoughts and comments.

Today's installment is Joe Girardi. What better place to start than with the manager?

I was in favor of hiring Joe Girardi over Don Mattingly after the Yankees stupidly let Joe Torre go after the 2007 season. I thought Girardi was the wiser choice. I still think Girardi was the wiser choice. Joe has always struck me as a wise baseball guy. I thought this after listening to him as a YES analyst and having seen him manage the Marlins. He has a reputation as being extremely prepared and I thought he started the season off real well, whipping the team into shape with his boot camp style spring training workouts. I thought it was just what the team needed. Now that the games have been played and the season is over, I'm not as sold on Joe as I once was.

For a smart baseball guy, Joe made some pretty stupid decisions in my opinion. The biggest that still sticks out to me was when he pulled a double switch, and had Melky Cabrera pinch-hit and Ivan Rodriguez pinch run. One of Girardi's faults in my opinion is that he relies way too much on lefty/righty matchups then on actual performance. In that game, the Yankees were trailing by 4 with runners the bases loaded and 1 out in the 7th. Giambi was on 1st and Justin Christian was up. Girardi sent Pudge to 1st and brought in Melky to face the RHP. Melky predictably popped up to short and the rally was pretty much dead. Melky is obviously faster than Pudge and Pudge is obviously a better hitter than Melky. Pudge has a career average of 300 against RHPs. That move still makes no sense to me.

I think Girardi did a horrible job in getting the best from his players, something that he apparently did pretty well his one year in Florida. The manager's job is to get 100% from his players day in and day out. The Yankees offseason struggled all season and one of the biggest disappointments was Robbie Cano's performance. Cano is widely known as a lazy player. He's the type of player that needs a kick in the pants every now and then. Joe Torre and Larry Bowa figured this out and pretty much wrote the book on how to successfully manage Cano. That being the case, it should never have taken Girardi until September 15th, with 13 games left in the season, to pull Cano and have him sit. And the only reason he pulled him was because he didn't run after a grounder that trickled off Giambi's glove. I don't think it's a coincidence that Cano turned it on after getting benched. In the final 12 games of the season, Cano went 14 for 46 (.413) and hit in the last 11 games. The Yanks went 9-3 in those 12 games. If only Joe was wise enough to pull Cano sooner. Maybe then the Yanks would still be playing. The same goes for Robbie's buddy Melky. Girardi left Melky in the lineup a lot longer than he should have. I didn't think Girardi was going to have any trouble managing the youngsters. Sadly, I was wrong.

Another major fault of Girardi's was how he dealt with the media, often pretty much straight up lying to everyone only to have others in the organization contradict him. I understand not wanting to give your opponents a competitive advantage by not disclosing injuries, but at least own up to them once it's public knowledge. Damaso Marte missed several games with in August with a bum wing. When Girardi was asked about it, nothing was wrong. When Marte was asked about it, the team was giving him time to rest. Recently, Girardi said Mariano left Toronto early to get a standard end-of-the-year physical and that there was no injury. As it turns out, Mariano was complaining that he had a sore shoulder, something confirmed by Yankees GM Brian Cashman. When asked about Mariano again, Girardi stuck to his story, not agreeing to the information that was given by Cashman. Joe has to do a better job in his dealings with the media. It's one of the intangibles that is going to make him successful.

I can't think of many positives except for how Girardi managed the use of the bullpen. Sure, he may have brought in the wrong guy, or left in a pitcher for too long, but he did spread things around, something that Joe Torre wasn't really good at. Michael Kay remarked several times during the season that Girardi was doing a great job managing the pen, keeping them out of the league leaders in appearances. I think at one point there weren't any Yankees in the top 15 in appearances, a category they typically have several in. The Yankees finished the season with 543.1 bullpen innings, second most in the AL. 22 different pitchers took the hill for the Yankees in relief, with Mariano appearing the most, in 64 games, which was tied for 22nd. In 2007 the bullpen threw 529.2 innings with 22 guys throwing in relief. 3 Yankee RPs ranked in the top 20. In 2006, they had 510 bullpen innings, split between 23 guys with 3 ranking in the top 10. Girardi did a good job in spreading the ball around. I think that was one of the reasons why the bullpen was a bright spot for the 2008 Yanks. The 2008 bullpen ERA was 3.78. 2007 was 4.35 and 2006 was 4.18.

So overall, Girardi's first year as Yankees skipper was disappointing to say the least. I'll hearken back to something Hank Steinbrenner stupidly said back before he, or anyone for that matter, was hired to replace Torre:

"I think the most important thing is whoever we hire, give 'em a chance because he's not getting the '96 Yankees. He's getting an even younger team or for the most part a team in transition. Give him a little while. We want to win the World Series every year. We're not stupid enough to think we can do it. Of course, we'd love to win the World Series next year."

That quote still burns me. As I said last year after Hank made that comment, if it was thought that it would be a year of transition because it was a young team and not the '96 Yankees, then Joe Torre should have been brought back. Torre was run out of town for failing to win the World Series. Sorry for going off on a tangent. My point about the quote is that Girardi was given a young team, one that was definitely in transition. I understand that the Yankees' failures this year were not entirely his fault. There were a lot of factors that contributed to the team's poor finish. However, Girardi didn't really do much to help the cause. I think the negatives far outweighed the positives. He needs to do a better job in getting 100% from his team. That's really what the job boils down to. There were several guys who underperformed and Girardi needs to find ways to get them to perform to their potential. In that respect, he did a very poor job.

Taking all things into account, J-Boogie's 2008 final grade for Joe Girardi is a C-/D+. Feel free to post your own grades or comments.

The next look back at 2008 will focus on Jorge Posada.

Peace, love and Pinstripes,

J-Boogie