Grading the Rivals: New York
When C.C. Sabathia lumbers onto that unfortunate pitcher’s mound in Baltimore this afternoon, he carries with him the weight of New York’s collective angst. After failing to make the playoffs for the first time in 14 years, the franchise went into full assault mode and stockpiled some expensive weapons of mass destruction. If this team fails to wash off the stink of third place after the Steinbrenner brothers effectively flicked their middle fingers at the world economy, the back-page tabloids will not hold back. Nor should they.
Rotation:
1. C.C. Sabathia
2. Chien-Ming Wang
3. A.J. Burnett
4. Andy Pettitte
5. Joba Chamberlain
Factoring out injury risk, it could be the best rotation in baseball. Even in the likely event that someone like A.J. Burnett goes down, you have promising starter Phil Hughes waiting to pick up the slack. I’m not relishing the idea of watching the Sox face CC-Joba-Burnett in a three game series. Health concerns are present for a couple of these guys, but that’s really the only shortcoming here.
Rotation Grade: A-
Bullpen:
Mariano Rivera (CL)
Damaso Marte
Brian Bruney
Phil Coke
Edwar Ramirez
Jose Veras
Jonathan Albaladejo
Rivera’s a freak of nature who had his career best ERA+ at age 38, so we’ll assume that the 9th inning is signed, sealed, and delivered once again. Ramirez and Veras are both promising arms, and I’m betting they are eventually assigned to become Rivera’s setup men. The guys actually setting up Mariano (Bruney and Marte) are questionable. Bruney, while overpowering, sometimes has serious trouble finding the plate, and Marte has not proven to be effective since returning from injury. However, there’s enough talent in the pen to hide the failures of 1 or 2 guys.
Bullpen: B+
Offense:
1. SS Derek Jeter
2. LF Johnny Damon
3. 1B Mark Teixeira
4. DH Hideki Matsui
5. C Jorge Posada
6. 2B Robinson Cano
7. RF Xavier Nady
8. 3B Cody Ransom (A-Rod in late May)
9. CF Brett Gardner
Bench:
C Jose Molina
OF/1B Nick Swisher
OF Melky Cabrera
INF Angel Berroa
Things certainly look a lot different without you-know-who in the lineup. The key to the season is probably Cano, a guy who can either hit like Ryne Sandberg or Scott Fletcher. Teixeira should be a monster, especially since the new stadium has the same Little League right field wall as the old one. Posada, Jeter, Damon, and Matsui are all guys who are in the midst of declining career trajectories, and while they should all be decent offensive producers, the wheels could fall off and major injuries could occur at any time (especially in the cases of Posada and Matsui). I’ll grade them assuming A-Rod is back in late May as expected, and is suffering no ill effects from his injury (or whatever else he has going on in his life).
Offensive grade: B
Fielding: Minor league data is inconclusive on “Poor Man’s Ellsbury” out in CF, but we do know he’s fast, so we’ll assume that he can track down a good amount of balls out there. Cody Ransom is a SS by trade, and thus he’ll probably make a decent 3B until A-Rod returns (and A-Rod is about average these days). Teixeria is a great fielder at 1B. Cano can be good, but the data and the anecdotal evidence suggests that he has more of a negative defensive impact than a positive one. The corner outfielders are below average, and the two most important positions on the field (C and SS) are extremely weak.
Fielding Grade: C+
Overall: 78.1 (B+)
Red Sox next…hopefully right around game time.
I think you rated the bullpen too high – should be a C – and the offense too low – should be an A.