Hindsight and Foresight: Yankee Review May 6th - May 20th

I've been slacking the last couple days on the blog as my fellow blogger on here has made me well aware of. And I'm going to have to respond to the Torre/Francona posting because it is a good question to consider.

But onto what I am calling "Hindsight and Foresight". This is what I'm hoping to be a weekly entry I make every Monday commenting on the past week of Yankees baseball and what lay ahead for the coming week. What I hope it will provide is some insight throughout the season about player trends, what went well/didn't go well, comments on trades/moves, and forseeably at least for the next week, what challenges are in front of the Yankees. I'll be playing around with the format of it, so chime in if you have a suggestion.

Hindsight: May 6th to May 13th
The past week was up-and-down for the Yankees. Sunday started with the announced return of Roger Clemens at the Stadium, which has been blogged and discussed here, there and everywhere. After Sunday's 5-0 win, the first shutout for the team this year, New York's lineup failed to put up more than two runs in four of the eight games played this week--topped off by a Jarred Washburn/JJ Putz combined shutout on Friday. However, the team continued to win against the Texas Rangers, who they are now 5-1 against this year. As for pitching Mariano "Mo" Rivera gave up a solo shot to Adrian Beltre in the 9th on Monday's loss casting further doubt on his ability to close out games. There were two suprises from the starters in Darrell Rasner and Matt DeSalvo--DeSalvo a 26-year old rookie who made his major league debut this week. Combined in four starts the pair went 2-1/24.3 IP/20 H/11 BB/7 Ks/2.23 ERA.

Weekly Stats (via ESPN and Baseball Prospectus)
W-L: 4-4
RS/RA: 31/25
Offensive numbers (BA/OBP/SLG): .271/.333/.382
Pitching line (ERA/Whip/K per 9/BAA/SLG): 4.42/1.40/3.74/.261/.433*
Who's Hot: Derek Jeter who hit .500/.593/.591 with 6 RBIs this week
Who's Not: Bobby Abreu continues to struggle with a .160/.160/.200 and 3 RBIs this week
My Yankee of the Week: Matt DeSalvo who is 1-0 with a 1.98 ERA in his first two starts in the majors this week. These were both against the Mariners, but he pitched well enough to keep the games close notching his first win on Saturday in Seattle. Plus given how rookies making spot starts for the Yankees have done the past couple years, DeSalvo looked as if he'd been up for a while.

*To note, Torre did not have to use the pen as much this week using them for 15 IPs of the 53 IPs the entire staff threw this week. This was a much needed break, we'll monitor how this continues.

Foresight: May 14th to May 20th
The road trip continues Tuesday in Chicago and then heads back to the Big Apple, but up at Shea as the Subway Series kicks off on Friday. Of course, the Yankees are going to have to win both series so they don't fall further behind the Red Sox (and everyone else)--who they play right after the Mets. A week ago they were 5.5 GB, but are now eight GB sharing the cellar with the D-Rays. In Chicago they will face a 1-4 rookie John Danks, an old teammate in Contreas on Wednesday night and then John Garland before heading to Shea to see Ollie Perez, Glavine and Maine. After horrible weeks from Abreu and Giambi, they both need to start producing in the 3 and 5 hold respectively. A-Rod needs to play smarter in the field after being outrun by Gerald Laird, a catcher, in Texas on a routine rundown, and making too strong a throw for an error in yesterday's game. If the starting pitching continues as is, with Wang forgetting about that big loss against Texas, the Yanks will have a chance for a better week.