As I was watching the baseball playoffs last year, I always thought that the offensive key to the Yankees' playoff success would be Robinson Canó. My logic was that opposing pitchers would be primarily focused on containing Teixeira and Rodriguez. In conjunction with the fact that Robbie would be hidden in the lineup by hitting 7th, I thought it would be the perfect scenario for him to showcase his incredible bat skills. Well, Cano did terribly in the playoffs. The Yankees won the title despite the fact that Teixeira, Swisher, and Cano did pretty much nothing.
Yes, this is how I felt watching you in the playoffs last year.
Unfortunately for opposing teams, A-Rod decided that he was just joking around for the past few postseasons and flexed his Hall of Fame skills to the tune of .365 Avg, 6 HR and 18 RBI. The Yankees' top 3 pitchers pitched out of their mind. Although on occasion, it seemed as if AJ lost his mind. Most importantly, David Robertson and my personal choice for MVP, Damaso Marte, were brilliant and mind-numbingly clutch when we needed outs.
It's hard to complain since we won the World Series. But, as it is in Yankeeland and Cashman's office, a ticker tape parade means we expect more the next year.
Flashing Forward to 2010
As we moved into the offseason, the huge surprise was the 3-team deal that helped us land Curtis Granderson. I initially thought it was a bad move. I was one of the few who thought that an OF of Leches (Melky) in LF, Gardner in CF, and Swisher in RF would be more than enough. I really wanted to see Johnny Damon go. He threw like a bitch (no misogyny-o). I also thought his speech was very distracting. Have you seen his post game interviews? Takes that mofo 3 minutes to get one sentence out. Ridiculous. Anyway, I digress, I liked the defensive alignment of Melky, Gardner and Swisher. Statistically, Gardner was nearly as good as Franklin Gutierrez in CF. That is ridiculous.
Franklin Gutierrez plays for Seattle. He catches the ball...all the time.
Anyway, Man-Crush aside, the offseason moves resulted in the following:
Notable Adds:
Curtis Granderson, Javier Vazquez, Nick Johnson
Notable Losses:
Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, Brian Bruney (hah, just kidding)
Before the season started, there was a lot of discussion regarding what the outfield alignment should have been and what the batting order should have been. This what I was hoping for in February:
1) R - Derek Jeter - SS
2) L - Nick Johnson - DH
3) S - Mark Teixeira - 1B
4) R - Alex Rodriguez - 3B
5) L - Curtis Granderson - LF
6) S - Jorge Posada - C
7) L - Robinson Canó - 2B
8) S - Nick Swisher - RF
9) L - Brett Gardner - CF
As you can see, I was nearly spot on with the current batting order. Obviously, the biggest glaring mistake I made was the batting order of Granderson and Cano. Robbie's 2009 RISP numbers and postseason numbers disheartened me to such a degree that I thought it would be better to leave him in the 7th hole with more low-leverage situations. From a defensive standpoint, I thought that Gardner would be best suited for CF given his ridiculous range and speed. Plus, if you guys saw Grandy towards the end of the year, his defensive routes really made you scratch your head. From a pitching standpoint, I thought the Javy move was fantastic. Absolutely brilliant.
No, I was wrong. Very wrong. In fact, I was so wrong, I want to personally apologize to Robbie and Curtis. Curtis has played a fantastic centerfield this year and he hit a game-winning home run off Jonathan Papelbum. Despite his recent slump, Granderson has had a great first month with the Bombaz.
And now, Robinson Cano. Robbie, my bad. I fucked up.
Robbie hitting 5th has turned into one of the best moves this season. How good has he been? Let's see below.
Robinson Canó's 2010 Stats (Courtesy of Fan Graphs):
| Season | Team | G | PA | H | HR | R | RBI | SB | BB% | K% | ISO | BABIP | AVG | OBP | SLG | wOBA | wRC+ | UZR | WAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | Yankees | 161 | 674 | 204 | 25 | 103 | 85 | 5 | 4.5 % | 9.9 % | .199 | .324 | .320 | .352 | .520 | .370 | 128 | -2.2 | 4.7 |
| 2010 | Yankees | 21 | 90 | 33 | 8 | 21 | 17 | 2 | 6.7 % | 12.3 % | .383 | .385 | .407 | .444 | .790 | .510 | 226 | -2.9 | 1.4 |
Some Reactions:
1) My man is hitting .407 as of April 30, 2010.
2) He leads the AL in runs scored with 21.
3) He's 2nd in HRs with 8.
4) His walk rate has increased since last year. In fact, it's the highest of his career.
5) His ISO is .383. That's good for 5th in MLB. (ISO is an advanced metric judging a player's power by the simple formula of Slugging % - Batting Average)
6) His BABIP (Batting Average for Balls in Play) is a ridiculous(ly unsustainable) .385. For a comparison, Albert Pujols' career BABIP is .317.
7) I suppose the only alarming trend is that his strikeout rate has risen considerably. But that's ok because he's seeing more pitches than ever before, so his Line Drive Rate is nearly 25% and his Home Runs Per Fly Fly Ball Rate is 29.6%.
For those who don't care what the stats mean, Robbie is basically God/Allah/Buddha handling a bat.
"Thomas, make sure you pick up my bat while I circle the bases."
"Yes, Master Cano."
Long story short, I was wrong about Curtis, wrong about Javy (what a bitch), and most importantly, wrong about Robbie.
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