New York Yankees

Power Rankings

Date	Ranking	Previous
01/26/2012	1	4
Good business: With two sprinkles of transactional pixie dust, the Yankees went from pitching-poor to pitching-rich. The Hiroki Kuroda and Michael Pineda acquisitions push A.J. Burnett into the position he was born to play, designated pie-facer. Bad business: Maybe they overpaid Russell Martin by 20 grand or so. Prognosis as of 11:14 a.m. GMT on Jan. 26, 2012: Their only concern is the inexorable dribble of granular sediment -- "sand," if you will -- down the hourglass, and the recurrent back pain that accompanies it.
10/31/2011	4	2
2011 eulogy: They didn't win the World Series, so 2011 was the Netflix name change plus the Bay of Pigs multiplied by The Black Eyed Peas. Offseason to-do list: Lay the groundwork for a Brett Gardner/Curtis Granderson positional do-si-do. The guy with the better range is the one you want patrolling center field, no? ... Ask Angels fans whether it'd be a good idea to trade a sluggy, shaky-receiving young catcher like Jesus Montero ... Rather than overindulge in a weak free-agent pitching class, work the trade market. John Danks would be a great fit if Ken Williams gets into one of his manic "I'm making a trade this morning, whether or not it makes any sense" moods ... Odds of achieving Cardinals-like glory in 2012: They'll be right there. Where else would they be?
09/28/2011	2	2
What went right: Brian Cashman's roster patches, both for the rotation and the bench, somehow worked. There is value to be found at the dollar store ... Derek Jeter got 3,000 hits and Mariano Rivera got 602 saves and everybody was happy and bought commemorative dirt and uniform fabric swaths from Steiner Sports and yaaaaaaaay! What went wrong: Yankee players logged more man-hours (are there any other kind?) on the DL than just about anybody else, though the numbers are inflated by the season-long absences of Damaso Marte and Pedro Feliciano ... In the wake of their breakups with Minka Kelly and Cameron Diaz, it's looking more and more likely that Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez will die alone ... I'm hearing whispers that the Yankees have decided to leave A.J. Burnett off their playoff roster in favor of a wiffle ball tee. Their reasoning: the tee has better rapport with Russell Martin. Regular-season epilogue: Teams that have lots of good players tend to win more games than teams that do not have lots of good players.
09/20/2011	2	2
Mariano Rivera is one of my favorite modern-era pitchers (the other two, for those planning to lure a special guest to my next surprise birthday party, are Pedro Martinez and Greg Maddux). But even I can't make a case for him as one of the top three Yankees of all time, as one geeked-out scribe did last week. Given his 80-inning-per-year average, I can't even rationalize a top-10 placement. Has he contributed more to the cause than, say, Jorge Posada? I realize this is heresy and hope that whoever's in charge of long-term accommodations in hell at least assigns me a cool roommate, maybe one of the devil-metal dudes like Rob Zombie. ... Along those lines, the only circumstance in which Posada should've been allowed to catch Mariano's 602nd save -- the only circumstance in which he should be allowed to catch at all -- is if the Yankees are up or down by 10 runs. Happily, sanity trumped sentimentality. That doesn't always happen in the Bronx.
09/13/2011	2	2
Here's when I realized the Yankees might, just might, not be pushing themselves too hard this month. The other night, I glanced out at the scoreboard in the ninth inning and saw a 1-1 tie, then looked to the right and saw the immortal Aaron Laffey -- currently 16th on the depth chart of the team's 20-man staff -- jogging in from the bullpen. ... The next night, they gave shortstop-by-trade Eduardo Nunez his first career start in right field. Because hey, why not? ... And it's the intelligent thing to do. September momentum is somewhat overrated (2000 Yankees, 2006 Cardinals, etc.) and it's hard to play when you can't feel your elbow, which is Nick Swisher's current physical predicament. So enjoy the Scott Proctor reunion tour and tune back in three weeks from Friday.
09/06/2011	2	3
When I predicted last week that the three-game Yankees/Red Sox series would play out over the course of a whopping 17 hours, I didn't intend it as a dare or a challenge. They came way too close to proving me right ... If I were a Yankee announcer, I'd keep my Jesus Montero home-run call simple, something like "Praise Be!" or "Aaaaaay-men!" ... Actual headline from actual MLB.com story the other day: "Greatness of Jeter yet to be fully appreciated." Actual sub-headline from the same story: "Yankees superstar the epitome of professionalism and excellence." Let's wrap it up on that journalistically unimpeachable note, shall we?
08/30/2011	3	3
Keeping A-Rod healthy is starting to become a project on par with keeping A-Rod off the tabloid blotter and keeping A-Rod on message ("It doesn't matter that I didn't collect my 2,766th career hit or my 628th career home run, not including the playoffs. I'm just happy we won. Say, do you like my shirt?"). His contract, by the way, runs until three years after life on earth will cease to exist ... Derek Jeter since his return from injury: .348/.400/.471, albeit with a wacko-lucky .399 BABIP, in 208 plate appearances. Why, that's positively tangible! ... Sure, Rafael Soriano blew a game last week by serving up a straightball that noted slugger Coco Crisp deposited in the right-field mezzanine. But afterwards, he met with the media, rather than hiding under the massage table in the trainer's room until the beat grunts scurried off. What a show of accountability! Finally, he gets it!
08/23/2011	3	3
What Joe Girardi could've said after A.J. Burnett cursed him out on the mound Saturday night: "He messed up. He knows this. He apologized. It's over." What he did say: "Shame on you, bloodthirsty media whores! You are trying to spoil my relationship with A.J., which is no less heartfelt and magical than the one between William and Kate! You should be asking me the questions that the fans want answered, like, 'How special was it when Jetes legged out that infield hit?'" ... Upon returning home to New York after the Yankees' 5-2 road trip, Jorge Posada was saddened to learn that his pile of birthday presents did not include a coupon for five at-bats. But he got a shiny new bike, so it wasn't a total loss. Anyway, here's a non-sarcastic happy belated 40th to a player -- I resisted the urge to use the Steinbrennerian sobriquet "warrior" -- who deserves a better final act.
08/16/2011	3	3
A handful of rough outings for Mariano Rivera? Call in the robotics people. Tell them to focus on the cutter module ... This is a junk stat, because it doesn't take into account the caliber of the competition or 200 other factors, but the Yankees have won 22 of 33 games since Alex Rodriguez went under the knife ... Oh, great. Now we're going to read as much into Jorge Posada's one great game as we did Derek Jeter's, and extend his lease on baseball life. No organization wishcasts about its name-brand stars like the Yankees do ... The question isn't whether Ivan Nova is the second-best Yankee starter. It's whether A.J. Burnett deserves the nod over next-guy-in-line candidate Adam Warren, currently plying his trade in Triple-A. Related: "Ivan Nova" sounds like the name of a B-movie protagonist -- you know, like Ivan Nova in: The Catacombs of Algeria. I'd watch that. So would you.
08/09/2011	3	3
Because the team can't stomach the PR hit that would come with releasing Jorge Posada -- the only rational move at this point in time -- they'll essentially be playing shorthanded until rosters expand in September. Isn't this franchise supposed to be about the ruthless pursuit of glorious victory, or whatever General Patton rap Steinbrenner used to lay on the boys, rather than about providing a pillow-soft landing for a once-great player who's past the expiration date on his milk carton? This "True Yankee" crap must die ... Since returning from the DL, Rafael Soriano has faced 12 batters and sent 'em all back to the dugout sad. Which is great, don't get me wrong. But is he sitting patiently after games and giving the perception-shaping beat writers the quotes they need? That's apparently as much a part of the job as the fastball-flinging.