tonytalkssports My Take on Sports, particularly the Yankees, Maple Leafs and Browns

Yanks Begin Second Half In Good Position

Despite some key injuries and a heavy reliance on home runs, the New York Yankees lead the AL East with the best record in baseball and absent a total collapse should be headed to the playoffs. Winning the division is very important as the Yanks will not want to be involved in the wild card play-in game.

Before we begin planning the Canyon of Heroes parade route, this team is flawed. While Joe "The Binder" Girardi pooh-poohs the heavy reliance on home runs, the fact remains that homer reliance teams run into trouble in October. As I have mentioned in a previous post, no one is having a career year offensively. In fact, as was pointed out in a New York newspaper article, Alex Rodriguez and Russell Martin need to pick up their game at the plate. ARod is the bigger concern in my mind because of where he hits in the lineup. If he is able to put up solid numbers in the second half, the Yankee offense becomes even more difficult for opposing pitchers.

Tonight's series against the Angels will be a good test. If the Yankees continue to get solid pitching from Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes, Hiroki Kuroda and Freddy Garcia, they should win the division going away. But nothing is a given. Just ask last year's Boston Red Sox.

Got Melky??

In 2005, Melky Cabrera made his major league debut with the New York Yankees. As I recall, he had an inauspicious start that included misplaying a fly ball against the hated Red Sox. Melky came back the following year and played a part in the 2009 World Championship run. And by the way, entering spring training in 2009, he battled Brett Gardner and won the centerfield job. There was something about this kid that I liked.

Unfortunately, Brian Cashman decided to trade Cabrera for Javier Vazquez. There have been reports that Melky liked the nightlife and that was what made him expendable but Cashman denies that. However, Kevin Long has basically said that was the case. So my question is this, if the Yankees believed that this kid could be a starting outfielder why couldn't they have straightened this kid out?? The richest team in all of sports should have been able to hire someone to keep this kid on the straight and narrow. With all of the former Yankees around, they couldn't have one of them get to this kid. How about Bernie Williams or Reggie Jackson??

What Cashman won't admit is that he made a choice: Gardner over Cabrera and he came out on the short end of the stick. For a team that has not had a homegrown outfielder since Bernie, the Yankees should have done everything in their power to improve Melky's work habits. The kid has enthusiasm, a great arm and can hit. He is not going to be a premier power hitter, but he certainly could be possibly a 20-20 guy and drive in 80-100 RBI's depending on where he is hitting in the lineup. How would the Yankee lineup look with Melky in left, Curtis Granderson in center and Nick Swisher in right. With Swisher's contract up at the end of this season, the Yankees could be looking at holes in right and left field next season.

Oh well, I guess there is no sense crying over spilled Melk.